Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion **SIGNIFICANT WEATHER THIS WEEK - JAN 20 UPDATE**

Below is the latest Winter Storm Warning, which covers pretty much the entire area of interest here (Yosemite to Tehachapi). Any added highlighting is mine.

Winter Storm Warning

KERN COUNTY MOUNTAINS-SIERRA NEVADA FROM YOSEMITE TO KINGS CANYON-TULARE COUNTY MOUNTAINS, INCLUDING THE CITIES OF TEHACHAPI, LAKE ISABELLA, SHAVER LAKE, YOSEMITE VALLEY, CAMP NELSON, GIANT FOREST, JOHNSONDALE, LODGEPOLE
454 AM PST WED JAN 20 2010

A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR THE KERN COUNTY MOUNTAINS AND THE
HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF THE SOUTHERN SIERRA NEVADA REMAINS IN EFFECT
UNTIL 4 AM PST THURSDAY.

TIMING: THE NEXT STORM WILL REACH THE SOUTHERN SIERRA NEVADA THIS MORNING, WITH SNOW CONTINUING THROUGH THE AFTERNOON AND OVERNIGHT INTO THURSDAY MORNING.

SNOW AMOUNTS: TOTAL SNOWFALL THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING WILL BE UP TO 6 FEET ABOVE 7000 FEET, AND 2 TO 4 FEET ABOVE 5000 FEET. GUSTY WINDS OVER AND NEAR THE CREST WILL CREATE CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. THE SNOW LEVEL WILL REMAIN AROUND 4000 TO 4500 FEET THROUGH EARLY THURSDAY MORNING.

MAIN IMPACT: EXTREMELY HEAVY SNOW WILL MAKE TRAVEL NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE. IF YOU LIVE OR WORK IN THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS, YOU MAY BE UNABLE TO REACH YOUR DESTINATION, OR YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO MOVE TO A LOWER ELEVATION.

OTHER IMPACTS: THIS WILL BE A LONG DURATION EVENT, AND IT IS LIKELY TO PERSIST INTO LATE FRIDAY. TOTAL SNOWFALL THROUGH FRIDAY COULD BE AS MUCH AS 10 FEET ABOVE 6000 TO 7000 FEET.

And once we get hit, you got two days to get your snow removal equipment ready.

Assuming it's cold enough to snow when it gets here. Seems unlikely, since it will be running around the low 40s here this week, and then the temps always warm up in advance of an approaching Pacific front.

Update - It looks like the most of the energy of these systems will track north of us through northern Canada, of all things.

CaT

The significant weather has already hit here in SoCal.They say the big storm is gonna hit later this afternoon. Crap if this is the little storm the "big" one is gonna be a duzy.El Nino has begun. Storms are lined up all week. We are going to get more than our average years rainfall total this week.

All true.
I looked at the 7-day forecast for Mt. Whitney, and it says either "snow", "heavy snow" or "snow likely" every day for the entire week.

Ditto for rain for SoCal.

Pretty much non-stop all this week and potentially through the coming weekend.

CaT

My wife and I went to Death Valley over the MLK holiday as a last minute.

Sorry, wagga.

Hey, Bulldog34, we stayed at Texas Springs along with giga group of Boy Scouts! Site 35. Thought we would have the whole place to ourselves...NOT!

We witnessed first-time events on Monday, January 18, 2010:

It rained in Death Valley. Sprinkled on us as we broke camp at 7:30 am. What a view of the storm clouds.

Rained on us as we neared Panamint Springs. Windy.

We drove through rain over the Panamints and Inyos and into Lone Pine. Windy.

It rained in Lone Pine as we stopped to dine at the High Sierra Cafe. (There is Subway in Lone Pine!). Windy. Saw Doug working on a drain pipe at the Hostel.

It rained from Lone Pine to Bakersfield. Very windy over the Tehachapis

Eucalyptus limbs over the 99 North. Rain, too. The rain broke near Kingsburg.

Again, the above events were firsts for us. Usually we are in Owens Valley during the summer and fall.

Torrential downpour near Fuggowhee (aka Coarsegold) with lightning as we got home around 3:30 p.m.

AWESOME! More on the way...

When I moved to the upper Mojave a few years ago from Vermont, I knew that the rainfall was but a fraction of that in New England. For some reason - and I suspect most others new to the area are the same - I thought it didn't rain at all in Death Valley, or if it did, it was a rare event. In reality, the large area known collectively as "Death Valley" is only a few valleys to the east. Of course, now that I live here I realize that's not the case at all, and that while it doesn't rain quite as much as in the Indian Wells Valley where I live - it certainly does rain there. The Panamints are frequently shrouded in clouds during the winter, acting like the sponges that mountains are in wringing moisture from passing air masses.

I also found that the name "Death Valley" might be a lure for the tourists, but in reality - the area is anything but dead.

[Antelope Valley/Desert Weather more "chat-like" portion of this topic was moved to the Chat Room to be continued there]

CaT