The snow-water equivalent at Ebbett's Pass at the top of the East Fork of the Carson River was at 84 percent of median on Friday. Depending on this weekend's storm, that could rise above 100 percent by Monday.
On the back end of this weekend’s storms, the water picture for Western Nevada will come into sharper focus.
Natural Resource Conservation Service Hydrologist Jeff Anderson was scheduled to make his monthly winter trek to the Mount Rose snow telemetry site to measure the snowpack on Monday.
But with more than 6 feet of Sierra cement forecast to fall near the site this weekend, Anderson will hold off until there's better weather.
“After a very disappointing start to winter the Eastern Sierra’ snowpack has been making a comeback,” climate officials said. “On New Year’s Day the snowpack was just 44 percent of normal, by the first media snow survey on Feb. 8 it had increased to 67 percent.”
As of the beginning of Friday, the Carson River Basin was at 84 percent of average and the Truckee, which includes Mount Rose, was at 80 percent.
“Weather forecasts predict the biggest storm of the winter,” Anderson said. “On Monday, we will know if this storm was enough to push snow levels past 100 percent of normal for March 1.”
Snow telemetry stations in the Carson River Basin were already heading toward 100 percent on Friday morning, with the Spratt and Forestdale creek stations exceeding the median for the day. The Burnside and Blue lakes stations were in the low 90s.
Ebbetts Pass at the top of the Carson River’s East Fork was at 84 percent on Friday morning with 23.4 inches of snow water equivalent. That’s a long ways from the record of 70.9 inches for March 1 set in 2017 or last year’s 56.6 inches, but it’s a lot closer to the median 28 inches.
The status of the Carson River, which flows from the Sierra to the Carson Sink will be a key topic at next week’s 2024 Carson River Watershed Management Forum.
Conducted by the Carson River Coalition in conjunction with the Carson Water Subconservancy District the forum will be looking downstream at the watershed’s water management needs.
“This year’s forum is a ‘collaboration celebration’ of all that our CRC partners are accomplishing,” said form organizer and Subconservancy Watershed Program Manager Brenda Hunt. “We have a wide range of topics, as no discipline exists without influencing the others, and they all need to work in concert to successfully manage the Carson River Watershed.”
The forum will be at the Governor’s Mansion in the Ruvo Stateroom, 606 Mountain St., Carson City. Doors open at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Visit www.cwsd.org for the program and to see presenter biographies.
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