Behind the Story: What California’s Snowpack Looks Like Up Close

With the rainy season coming to a close, determining exactly how much snow has piled up in the Sierra Nevada this winter is critical to predicting California’s future water supplies.

As it melts in warmer months, the Sierra Nevada snowpack typically provides about 30 percent of the state’s water by filling rivers and reservoirs. But how do you measure all that snow?

On Friday, a twin turboprop aircraft from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration departed from Reno and flew a five-hour course over the Sierra, using sensors mounted on the airplane to make its calculations. Erin Schaff, a staff photographer for The New York Times, shot stunning photos and video from that flight, as it wound through narrow valleys and hovered just above tall alpine trees to gauge the amount of water in the deep white carpets below. You can see her images here, and read more about the snowpack from Raymond Zhong, a Times climate reporter.

“By flying at a low level — they fly like 500 feet above the ground — they’re able to get a quick, accurate read on everything,” Erin told me. The “scientist who was on the plane said she’s been doing this for 20 years, and it’s the most snow she’s ever seen.”

In the northern Sierra, where runoff feeds several major reservoirs, the water in the snowpack is nearly double the historical average for this point in the year. In the southern Sierra, it’s around triple the average, Raymond wrote.

The scientist, Carrie Olheiser, a snow hydrologist with the research organization RTI International who supports NOAA’s snow-survey missions, said the comparison between the snow levels of the past few years and this year was “night and day.”

The team regularly flies the same flight paths through craggy mountains to record snow levels. Given the kind of adventurous, low-level flying that’s required to make the measurements, Olheiser keeps handwritten notes of things to watch out for on each leg of the journey, Erin said.

At one point during the flight, Olheiser told Erin that the next segment would probably be a little testy.

“All I have in my notes is just ‘screaming,’ so I think this one is going to be scary,” Erin recalled Olheiser telling her. “Just do your best.”

What you get

For $900,000: An 1895 Victorian in Los Angeles, a two-bedroom condominium in San Diego or a 1929 Tudor Revival house in El Cerrito.

Where we’re traveling

Ten places to see wildflowers in the West this spring.

Tell us

After a very rainy winter, spring has arrived in California. Whether it’s road trips, festivals, sunny afternoons or wildflower sightings, tell us your favorite part of spring in the Golden State.

And before you go, some good news

In the spring of 2018, Jennifer Nicole Walters and John Clark Palicka participated in the Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco with some of their friends.

Later that day, the pair — both U.S. Air Force pilots who met a few years earlier while stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Solano County — bought a bottle of Champagne. (Walters is an unabashed Champagne enthusiast.) They drank bubbly on the lawn at Crissy Field, just east of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Up until that year, Walters and Palicka had viewed their relationship as platonic. But that was beginning to shift.

“It was kind of one of those flashbulb moments where you look at the person and the background and you realize this is the new trajectory of my life,” Walters told The Times.

Fast forward five years: The two were married last month and had a reception filled with revelry, heartfelt speeches and, of course, gobs of Champagne.

Read the full story in The Times.