Winter finally comes to California

It’s been four long years of drought for California, leaving some reservoirs at record lows and some 12 million trees dead and dying due to stress from the extreme drought allowing the bark beetle infestation to run rampant.  And the stressed and dead trees added to the fuel that fed the devastating wildfires of 2015.

They’ve told us that this winter’s El Nino will bring relief to California’s drought.  It may not completely fix the drought, but will certainly help California’s water problem for the coming year.  The first half of December 2015 has proven to be a wonderfully wet couple of weeks with the current snowpack measured in feet rather than inches.  And according to the weather service, the storm door is open with more wet weather coming to the western states.

Here are some recent photos of a snowy Cisco Grove and Yuba river in Northern California.
Snow covered boulders and frosty trees along the river

Mother Nature’s game of snow discs swirling in the river.

Granite ice

Another shot of the river

Ice reaching for the river.

The sun was out, but only 27 degrees.

And on the way home, stopped at a vista point to capture a wider look at the snowy mountains.

Not sure what’s in store for the rest of the 2015-2016 winter, but it’s beginning on an up-note!