Lightning Fact or Myth?

Yet another Pacific storm arrived along the West Coast during the first weekend of March 2017, piling onto the incredible snowpack that has already built up during the winter.

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Up to 56 inches of snow was reported at Donner Pass in the 48 hours ending 8 a.m. PST March 6. Several ski resorts tallied totals of more than three feet in that time.

Many ski resorts now have seasonal snowfall totals topping 500 inches.

Interstate 80 was forced closed by the snow in the Sierra Nevada on the morning of March 6.

Snow was also observed at very low elevations in the Pacific Northwest from this storm. Some accumulation was reported at sea level along the coast of Oregon.

The higher terrain around the Bay Area also saw snow and some hail.

Before this storm arrived, parts of the Sierra had over 200 inches of snow on the ground as of March 2, according to the National Resources Conservation Service.

• Leavitt Lake, California (9,604-feet elevation): 240 inches
• Mt. Rose Ski Area, Nevada (8,801-feet elevation): 207 inches
• Mammoth Mountain, California (8,909-feet elevation): 200 inches

A survey of the Sierra snowpack's water content on Mar. 1 found near-historic values from 1983 in the central and southern Sierra, and well-above-average water content in the northern Sierra.

In fact, the just-completed October through February period was California's wettest such period on record dating to 1895, according to the Western Regional Climate Center.

The Mar. 2 snowpack in parts of the Rockies, including Farmington, Utah (124 inches), was also the most in at least 20 years.

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