00:00Our California expert, Ken Clark, and you know, Ken, while it's not unprecedented what has occurred in the Sierra, this
00:09week's snow thus far and what's going to be happening even today is quite impressive.
00:15It is impressive. A lot of snow. There's been, you know, five, six feet of snow in a lot of
00:20the ski areas across central and southern Sierra over the last few days.
00:26That's a lot of snow. And there's more coming today. Heavy snow likely today. Lots of wind.
00:32And we're talking maybe another two to five feet of snow today. Just just today.
00:40Ken, avalanches, power outages. Are there concerns about any structures from the weight of the snow?
00:47There's going to be some concern. Now, one thing about the snow is it's been a light, powdery snow.
00:51So it's not been a heavy snow in the weight of each individual flake, let's say.
00:57But as you gather all that feet of snow on top of rooftops, there is concern about potential for structure
01:05collapses because of the weight of the snow.
01:08That may increase even as we go through not only today, but next week, too. And we'll get to that
01:13in a minute.
01:13All right, Ken, it's been such an impressive. It was certainly an impressive start to the season in California with
01:22the wet weather.
01:22In fact, Los Angeles, we have the totals here, Ken. You know, we've and let me go back to Ken
01:29here a second.
01:29But, Ken, it's been such a wet, wet time in California.
01:34I mean, we got off to such a wet start to the season that in many places we're well above
01:41where we should be right now, right?
01:44Yeah. In fact, most of California, the amount of water that's fallen so far this winter season, October 1 to
01:51now, is above normal.
01:53And far above normal, especially across parts of Central and Southern California.
01:57Look at those totals in Los Angeles, 17.29, 13 is average.
02:03We're right now about 184 percent of normal for this time of season of the rainy season.
02:09So that's far above normal. This storm we're having right now is adding even more to that.
02:16We're going to be close to all time records for La Nina season rainfall in Southern California in Los Angeles.
02:24Now, what can we make? What conclusions can we make now?
02:28Moving forward, let's say we don't get any more storms beyond the one we're going to get Sunday in the
02:33Wednesday.
02:34Where are we moving forward with the water supply in California?
02:40Let's take politics out of it because water equals politics in California and much of the Southwest.
02:46And for good reason. It's a very big commodity.
02:49Taking politics out of it, I think we're in good shape.
02:52I don't think we're in excellent shape, but I think we're in good shape getting into the summer.
02:56All these reservoirs across California, so over 100 percent, as much as 128 percent of where they should be for
03:03this time of year.
03:04And that's not too much different than it was last time, last year at this point, too.
03:09So we're not in a worse shape than we were last year, except for the amount of snowfall that's fallen
03:15in Sierra.
03:16I think we're going to be good this year. If we have another bad year next year, maybe we'll have
03:22to be concerned about the summer of 2027.
03:25But I think through this summer, barring any political kind of intervention by the water authorities,
03:31I think we're going to be OK going through this this coming year and going into next winter.
03:35Ken, we have about the 20 seconds. Fourth consecutive year of a positive water season.
03:42We don't often see this many consecutive years of those weather conditions in California.
03:48No, you don't. It's not rare, but it's certainly not unprecedented, but it certainly is unusual.
03:54And we will take it in California. Water is extremely important.
03:59Agriculture is extremely important to California and the United States.
04:04AccuWeather expert, California expert, Ken Clark.
04:07Ken, as always, we thank you for breaking it down because nobody knows California better than Ken.
04:13Not even me. Stay with us.
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