Just a brief note to share some of the best news in a very long time. The storm series, including the CENCAL deluge yesterday definitely confirmed as the wettest storm within the past 15 months, with widespread heavy precip accumulations from north to south down to San Diego Co. Mammoth Mt Ski Resort reporting 3 to 4.5 feet of new snowfall in the past 48hrs this morning with continued snowfall observed on skycams. The CA grand prize for a one day precip total goes to Mt Palomar with 6.33 inches in the past 24hrs, with the grand prize for the Storm Series going to the Mining Ridge Station located in the Santa Lucia Mts along the Central Coast with 13.19 inches! Several Stations in the Southern Sierra recorded 5 inches and the Chilkoot Station 5.96 inch total will surely surpass 6 inches sometime today. Today additional orographically driven precip should continue into the Sierra with numerous showers in the SJV and a slight chance of an isolated Thunderstorm this afternoon.
Here are some Storm Totals spanning Wed to this morning 8am (Orographic precip should continue to increase these numbers today);
San Joaquin basin
Chilkoot 5.96
Nature Pt 5.00
Kaiser Pt 4.80
Graveyard 3.80
Shaver Lake 4.46
Minarets 3.99
Kings basin
Wishon Dam 4.16
Dinkey Crk 3.47
Mt Rest 3.94
Fence Mdw 3.72
Pinehurst 3.56
Bald Mtn 3.24
Balch 3.07
Trimmer 2.69
Cedar Grove 2.60
Pine Flat 2.23
Kaweah basin
Beartrap Mdw 5.39
Hockett Mdw 4.94
Giant Forest 3.31
Shadequarter 3.11
Wolverton 2.83
Ash Mtn 2.54
Milo 1.90
Lake Kaweah 1.44
Tule basin
Springville/Tule 3.35
Oak Opening 2.78
Rogers Camp 2.14
Camp Nelson 1.45
Success Lake 1.33
Kern basin
Pascoes 3.84
Johnsondale 2.44
Wofford Hts 2.41
Peppermint 2.37
Piute 1.93
Response from streamflow on the Merced River to the recent storm series shows a rise up to 335cfs. Note the Water Year Season which began Oct 1, is flatline with the lowest streamflow since Oct 1st occurring on Jan 28th with only 18cfs!
As the upper level Low Pressure ‘devil’ west of Big Sur moves closer toward the Central Coast, additional showers are rotating into CENCAL.
