It Caught My Breath

After the last storm, I was on the East Shore.

Wow.

Another Week, Another 4 feet

Here's the view looking out our front door Friday morning, March 16. The snow had drifted 6 feet deep. And the forecast is for up to another foot by Saturday morning. 

Our walkway is under there someplace. No wonder I have tendonitis from shoveling.

The avalanche warning center in Truckee has put out a "High" warning for all Tahoe back country outside of developed ski areas. If we can get unburied and go cross-country skiing, we won't go back near the mountains behind our house!

Water, Goldilocks, And The Incredible Gift Of Snow

In Tahoe as well as the rest of California, we survive or thrive because of the presence of snow. Yes, it's pretty and fun to play on. But its real value is that snow is a version of water that's deposited gently over a very large territory and then released slowly over months to sustain the ecosystem, plants and animals, one of which is us.

Because hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms have such a strong affinity for each other, they lock elbows whenever they get a chance, two hydrogens for each oxygen. The combination is dihydrogen monoxide, more commonly known as water.

Scientists have now found water, both liquid and frozen, all over the solar system. It's in craters at the poles of our very own moon. It is found in large quantities under the sands of Mars, on the moons of the giant planets such as Saturn's Encedalus, which has huge oceans of liquid water beneath its surface.

Other scientists have discovered hundreds of planets orbiting distant stars. They wonder if any of those planets also have water, especially the liquid kind. The reason for that question is that the version of life that we are familiar with is generally dependent on liquid water.

The key to the presence of water is whether or not the planet is too hot (too close to its star), too cold (too far from its star), or just right (the Goldilocks zone).

Because there are uncountable billions of stars out there, the assumption is that very many of them have planets with water, either frozen or liquid. But do any of them have snow? Gentle, falling bits of water, precipitating out of an atmosphere that contains water vapor? Water vapor that has cooled and condensed into tiny, elaborate, beautiful ice crystals?

Is snow a miracle? No. It is by all scientific reasoning a completely natural phenomenon.

But it is an amazing gift without which our life wouldn't exist as we know it.

4 Feet In One Storm - 7 Feet In Seven Days

Just one week ago, I was loving the drought. Sunshine, easy walking, warm temps. Perfect.

But I knew we needed snow.

We got it. 4 feet at our house in the last two days. Another foot a couple of days before that. The Sierra crest got more than that.

There's a tree in there someplace

Here are the one-week totals for the ski areas:

Squaw: 93 inches

Kirkwood: 91 inches

Sierra at Tahoe: 79 inches

Heavenly: 68 inches

The mountain snowpack can always use more, but it's A LOT better.

With the aid of one of my wife's paintings, here's a toast to the beauty of snow...