Re: April 1 Snow Survey Results

Park Staff have completed the April 1 snow surveys. The water content of the snowpack in the Tuolumne drainage is 89% of average; in the Merced drainage it is 91% of average. The April 1 survey is considered the benchmark for the year; the water content of the snowpack typically peaks near this date.

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eeek
Park Staff have completed the April 1 snow surveys. The water content of the snowpack in the Tuolumne drainage is 89% of average; in the Merced drainage it is 91% of average. The April 1 survey is considered the benchmark for the year; the water content of the snowpack typically peaks near this date.

Thanks for the info, that's great news. Hopefully we can get one more good round of snow.

I have been keeping an eye on the snowpack survey to see when the Tioga pass rd will open this year. Hoping to snag some early season permits
https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tiogaopen.htm

Based on these result do I conclude correctly that we still had a below average snowfall? Albeit much better than the last couple years...

But what will this generally speaking mean for the waterfalls the week of August 14? I've got a quick family trip and want to make sure I give everyone the right expectations. They have heard how great the snow is this year but I'm not so sure it has been all that great.

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chicagocwright
Based on these result do I conclude correctly that we still had a below average snowfall? Albeit much better than the last couple years...

But what will this generally speaking mean for the waterfalls the week of August 14? I've got a quick family trip and want to make sure I give everyone the right expectations. They have heard how great the snow is this year but I'm not so sure it has been all that great.

Even in a regular snow year, Yosemite Falls usually doesn't have any or has little water by mid August. Bridalveil, Nevada, Vernal will have water but not full force. My concern this year is although we did have more snow than previous years, the falls are really flowing right now and the volume last week when we were there was more than I had expected for this time of the year. Does this mean that water volume will decrease more rapidly this year, who knows.

Did Vernal completely dry up this past year? Or at least barely a trickle?

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chicagocwright
Did Vernal completely dry up this past year? Or at least barely a trickle?

When we were there at the end of September and in mid Oct we went to Glacier Pt. each trip and you could still see a small amount of water going over Vernal, Nevada and Illioette (sp). It was more than a trickle. We were not there in July and August last year so I don't know how much water there was then. I would hope that this year the falls will have more water in Aug than they have had the past several years. It is supposed to snow again at the end of this week so that helps.