This year’s snowpack the bleakest in 500 years, scientists say
The winter snowpack in the High Sierra was abysmal this year, and now Californias blue oaks have put a historic stamp on the season: It was the smallest in 500 years.
Examining a sample tree-ring survey of more than 1,500 of the trees, some living and others long dead, scientist also found that the water content of the meager snow was only 5 percent of the historical range over the five-century period.
The tree-ring surveys for recent years indicated that snowpacks in the Sierra were diminishing, and we were expecting that 2015 would be extreme, but nothing like this, said Valerie Trouet, a tree-ring specialist who helped lead the research with a team of scientists at the University of Arizona.
--- Snip ---
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/This-year-s-snowpack-the-bleakest-in-500-years-6503680.php
Yowsers.
I just got back from a hike in the Sierra and I was pleased to see that the high elevation lakes we visited were not hugely low and the streams were somewhat reasonable for this time of year, but there were a lot of dead trees on the way up, the reservoirs were barren, and the persistent pall of smoke was quite disturbing...