Recent storms boost Sierra snowpack

How quickly things change.

Since then, a series of wet, Pacific storms have dumped as much as 90 inches of snow- or 7 1/2 feet - in the mountains near Lake Tahoe, the National Weather Service said on Monday.

On Jan. 15, water content in the snowpack was less than 70 percent of normal around Lake Tahoe. To the south in the Walker River drainage basin, it was a scant 50 percent of normal for this time of year.

Then the storms began. And they kept coming.

As of Monday, water content in the snowpack around Lake Tahoe stood at 130 percent to 150 percent of normal, the weather service said. The Walker River drainage area was at 100 percent.

Another storm was on the immediate horizon.

The weather service predicted more snow in the Sierra and the valleys of western Nevada on Tuesday, with daytime highs in the Reno-Carson City area around the freezing mark.

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