What a difference a year makes.
As the comparison of satellite images above shows, last year at this time California's Sierra Nevada range was buried in snow. And even as recently as January of this year, snowpack was looking pretty good.
But since then, the jet stream has ferried storms north of California, causing the snowpack to shrivel — from about 150 percent of average last February down to just a little more than 50 percent now.
A year ago, California's Sierra Nevada snowpack contained much more water than it does now, portending less runoff into reservoirs and a heightened wildfire risk. (Images: National Weather Service)
The images above offer another way of visualizing what's happening in the Sierra. They show the water content of the snow, a factor called "snow-water equivalent," during late February of last year on the left, and the present on the right.
Although the Sierra ...
