Published: January 25,2017
Since the beginning of the year, California has dealt with storm after storm, each one piling up more snow on top of the last storm's snow.
The last six winter storms — Gregory, Helena, Iras, Jupiter, Kori and Leo — all passed through California dumping feet of snow, while rainfall caused flooding in lower elevations. Some residents in the mountain West are calling this month #Januburied.
At Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, they've received more snow so far in January than any calendar month on record, as well as some recent entire seasons.
From Jan. 1-24, Mammoth Mountain received 245 and a half inches of snow. That crushes the previous monthly snowfall record of 209 inches set in December 2010.
For perspective, over the last 48 snow seasons, Mammoth has received an average of 65 inches during the month of January.
The January snowfall total so far tops 11 other seasonal snowfall totals dating back to 1970. That includes the recent drought-ridden 2013-14 (238 inches) and 2014-15 (176 inches) snow seasons.
Cabins buried by snow at Mammoth Lakes, California, in January 2017. ( Marc Monney/Instagram)
In the Lake Tahoe region, it has been the snowiest January since 1952 in Tahoe City, California, with 135.5 inches. Last winter, the seasonal total from July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016 was 140 inches, only 4 and a half inches more that what has fallen just this January.
At Squaw Valley, California, webcams/squaw-valley-snowfall-tracker">more than 8 feet of snow fell Jan. 19-24 at 8,000 feet, bringing the seasonal snowfall total to 378 inches. That snowfall total, if it was the end of the season, would be higher than four of the last six seasonal snowfall totals. We still have 4 to 5 more months to go in this year's snow season.
Some ski resorts have even had too much of the drought-busting powder, enough snow to completely bury entire ski lifts and even close the slopes.
It's not just the mountains that have shoveled and plowed away hefty amounts of snow. Reno, Nevada, has had its snowiest month in 12 years, with 18.8 inches in January.
The snow has caused significant impacts to travel through Donner Pass on Interstate 80 at times.
Blizzard conditions from Winter Storm Jupiter forced that stretch of interstate to close during the height of the storm. According to the National Weather Service in Sacramento, the last closure of that magnitude on Interstate 80 over Donner Summit was in March 2011.
In the Truckee, California area, I-80 was closed for over 12 hours during Winter Storm Leo due to road and weather conditions. According to the California Highway Patrol-Truckee in a Facebook interview, the frequency of interstate closures has been "on about par with most normal winters" even with all of the extra snow. In addition to those closures, when I-80 was open, the road was restricted to cars with chains or four-wheel vehicles with snow-tread tires.
With as many storms as California and Nevada have seen, it is no surprise that precipitation has been well above average. The California Nevada River Forecast Center says precipitation is more than 300 percent of average in much of the Golden State so far in January.
The first 24 days of January were the wettest such period on record in Bakersfield and Sacramento, California, and the second-wettest in Reno, Nevada, and San Francisco, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center.
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