Above Photo from Without Water by Hyla
Volume 3 - Issue 2 | February 2023
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Pray for Snow, Not Rain
by Allison Weber
Eastern Sierra residents might be getting tired of all this snow, but we are here to remind you how critical snow is. Not just because it much needed water, but because it is snow, and not rain. Is any precipitation good? Not really. While Californians who are used to drought might gaze at a rainy day and think “we needed this,” the situation is a bit more complicated. We need snow falling on snow to create a healthy snowpack, yet with a changing climate we are seeing increased examples of rain falling on snow, which can lead to a dangerous icy crust, increased/premature melting, and "warm snow drought."
To protect the Eastern Sierra, we need to limit human activities that affect weather and precipitation patterns. One such human activity that could easily be limited locally is water extraction. By keeping Long Valley irrigated, LADWP can reduce harm. By maintaining the wetlands and meadows of Long Valley which serve as a carbon sink, LADWP can be part of the solution to capture carbon and reduce warming, rather than the problem. LADWP can also directly protect our snowpack by maintaining a healthy, water-filled ecosystem in Long Valley, which reduces wildfire and dust storm risk, both of which pose direct threats to the longevity of snowpack.
Warming Winter
Yes, rainwater immediately recharges groundwater and, if there has been little precipitation, can refresh the soils. Yet when rain falls during times it should be snow, the hydrology is skewed. Why? Snow releases water at a slower rate than a rainstorm, as it melts into the spring and summer. This allows gradual feeding of streams and rivers, important not only for the ecosystems which rely on these tributaries, but also for California water managers, who use the amount of snow, predictions of melt rate, etc. to calculate water availability in the dry season.
Rain that falls upon snow is not only terrible for the snow conditions desired by recreationalists because of the icy crust it creates, or the dangers it poses to wildlife, it also threatens the longevity of the snowpack. When warm temperatures cause precipitation to fall as rain, that warm rainwater then speeds up the melt rate of the snow it falls upon, sometimes even causing flooding. These “Rain on Snow events” or “ROS” then decrease water availability during the summer, as the water exits the watershed sooner than it would have otherwise.
Warm Snow Drought
While we may remember the water year of 2016-2017 as colossal, with winter precipitation coming in at record levels, this was not entirely reflected in the snowpack across the Sierra Nevada. Overall precipitation in the Northern Sierras came in at 200 percent of average, yet snowpack was only at 148 percent of average on April 1, 2017. One hundred and forty-eight percent of average is certainly exciting, but where did the rest of that precipitation go? Despite serious snowfall, the winter of 2016-2017 was actually warmer than average, meaning more rain and snowmelt. This is referred to as a "warm snow drought," meaning a decrease in water resources due to warmer temperatures, which reduce snowpack, as opposed to reduction in water resources due to overall decreases in precipitation, known as a "dry snow drought." This phenomenon was more obvious in 2015: Despite precipitation levels that, though quite low, were still significantly above record lows, the Sierra Nevada snowpack stood at the lowest level in 500 years due in part to warm snow drought.
Right In early July 2017, two standup paddle boarders skim along the icy waters of Tioga Lake off Highway 120. Photo credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
Less Snow Means More Fire. More Fire Means Less Snow.
The years 2020 to 2022 represent the driest three-year period on record, breaking the old record held by the 2013 to 2015 drought period. Predictably, 2020 and 2021 offered devastating and record-breaking wildfires. The 2021 Dixie Fire was the first wildfire to cross the crest of the Sierra Nevada in recorded state history. The Caldor Fire became the second later that month. In the past, it was thought that the high, granite walls of the Sierra Nevada would prevent fires started on the western side of the range from crossing to the east, and vice versa. Yet the wildfires of 2021, fueled by heat and drought, proved this wrong. Previously, a lack of dense fuels at high elevation and a persistent snowpack sticking around through the summer, slowly keeping soils wet, was thought to prevent the crossing of wildfires. Yet when the environment lacks snow, and a wildfire burns hot and strong enough with windy conditions, this barrier is surmountable. When the forest burns at such a large and destructive scale, the snowpack diminishes further. Thus, a vicious cycle begins.
Left Flames from the Caldor fire at Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort in the Eldorado National Forest, which burned in 2021. Photo credit: Noah Berger / Associated Press
Sunshine on Dirty Snow
Warmer winters mean more precipitation falls as rain, which does not keep vegetation and soils moist as long as the slow release of melting snowpack does. On top of that, warmer springs and summers can cause what snowpack there is to melt much earlier, leaving vegetation parched and primed to ignite. Fire burns, further drying out the landscape. Yet the effects on water continue into the future: when snow fell onto the Caldor fire’s burn scar the following winter, it was exposed to more sunlight due to a lack of tree coverage. Charred vegetation from the fire then also mixed with the snow to lower its reflectivity, or “albedo.” The high albedo of snow, i.e., its ability to reflect back light from the sun, is a large part of what allows it to stick around in the summer, melting at a slow and controlled rate to supply water across California. When this albedo is lowered, the snow melts much faster than it would otherwise. The albedo of the snow declined as much as 71 percent when it fell onto burned areas, then leading to fewer snow-covered days as the snow melted faster. Researchers recorded 50 fewer days with snow cover that winter, the lowest number of snow cover days on record in the area.
In addition to char from wildfires, dust can also lower the albedo of snow, significantly increasing the melt rate. As the no-longer-white snowpack absorbs heat from the sun, it melts more quickly and far earlier than it should. Early melting and runoff because of a high dust-on-snow year leads to water managers having to capture that water sooner, which then leads to draining reservoirs sooner, and thus going into the following year with less water as a result. It is suggested that increased dust associated with desiccation and erosion has made the sweeping drought in the western United States worse.
Increased erosion has led to a 60 percent increase in dust storms in the last two decades. With strong winds that lift large amounts of sand and dust from bare, dry soils into the atmosphere, dust storms can jeopardize snow hundreds to thousands of kilometers away. In March 2022, dust from the Saharan desert turned snow in the Swiss Alps orange.
In an area that already struggles with dust issues, the Eastern Sierra's fragile snowpack cannot afford the effects from further desiccation and erosion resulting from the dewatering of Long Valley. Eastern Sierra snow cannot afford to be put at further risk should a wildfire burn through a dry Long Valley. Eastern Sierra snow will be further compromised by carbon released from a dead, dry wetland. Climate change has powerful effects on the future of snow in California and with the climate changing in increasingly extreme and unpredictable ways, it is critical that we act defensively to protect the complex, snowy ecosystems that countless plants, animals, and people rely on.
No Time to Walk Away
A persistent set of atmospheric rivers from mid-December to mid-January established a remarkable start to the snow season, and with these recent storms, the base of snow in the Eastern Sierra continues to grow. February snowfall is expected to total 94 inches with six to seven feet falling just in the last week. This will be the third month in a row that Mammoth Mountain Ski Area will break the 100-inch snowfall mark. LADWP’s latest snow survey report states that, as of February 21, before the most recent string of storms, we were at 174 percent of normal for a typical water year, of which April 1st is the peak. It is around this date each year that the future of water in Long Valley for the remainder of the year is decided.
With the abundant snow we’ve had this winter, and attempts to spread water in the Owens Valley to keep from overwhelming the water delivery system, it is unlikely that LADWP will attempt to dewater our ecosystem further. This year, rather than take from Long Valley, LADWP will continue to enjoy the benefits water diversions in Long Valley have for regulating their own system of aqueducts and reservoirs.
Yet, even with these welcome, relaxed conditions, we must not let up in holding LADWP accountable. A good water year is a perfect time for LADWP to re-evaluate its water needs and plan for the next inevitable low-water year by investing in its own water sources. It is also a good time for Eastern Sierra residents to educate ourselves on snow, a resource many hope and pray for, and how it is threatened. It is an even better time for concerned citizens to get involved.
Let’s Keep Long Valley Green—and not only in the good years! Add your voice to stand up for Long Valley. Please use our online public comment form to demand that LADWP invest in its own water sources. We collect responses and send them in for you during the online e-comment period for each LADWP board meeting.
Help us show LADWP that we aren't going anywhere by helping us grow: Sign up to volunteer with the Keep Long Valley Green Coalition! Our community coalition needs assistance in a variety of activities-- whether they be artistic, technical, or communication related. Have a skill you could share? Let us know by clicking on the volunteer button below.
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February Wrap-up:
Supporting the Mono Lake Committee, a member of the Keep Long Valley Green Coalition, in its fight to help raise the water level at Mono Lake
The Mono Lake Committee is calling on lovers of the Eastern Sierra everywhere to write to the CA State Water Board by March 16th in support of suspending water diversions on Mono Lake to address the critically low lake level, as well as in support of developing a new diversion management plan which will address the failure of the lake to rise in the last several decades and culturally and ceremonially important tribal uses and needs.
On February 15th the Mono Lake Committee, Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, California Department of Fish & Wildlife, and the Mono Lake Kutzadika’a Tribe all made presentations in a special State Water Board Workshop on the state of Mono Lake. The recorded presentation is now available to view online. About 50 individuals and organizations delivered public comments in strong support of taking immediate action to raise lake levels- and many, many more have sent in written comments since then. This is the power of grassroots organizing and mobilizing! It is critical that water advocates and lovers of these lands stand together against LADWP's excessive water extraction. Please add your voice to the Mono Lake Committee's public comment drive at the button above to help save Mono Lake!
Mammoth Film Festival Fun:
Without Water will be at the Mammoth Film Festival this week- check us out Monday March 6th at 11 AM at Minaret Cinemas- Theater #2, 437 Old Mammoth Rd, Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546
Without Water is Now Streaming Online!
Can't make it to a film festival showing Without Water? Good news- you can now watch our film for FREE, online, anytime!
Help us in a big way by doing something small: spread the message of Keep Long Valley Green by simply sending people in your contacts (and especially Los Angeles residents) the link to Without Water.
Credits:
Allison Weber photo credits unless otherwise stated