Publication: L.A. Times

UCLA Expert: Daniel Swain: Assistant Researcher and Climate Specialist, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Synopsis: California’s wet and wintry start to the year has resulted in perhaps the deepest snowpack recorded in more than 70 years, officials said Monday. The snowpack is so deep that it currently contains roughly 30 million acre-feet of water — or more water than Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, according to a Times analysis of snow sensor data.

UCLA News: “All of that water is going to have to come downhill sooner rather than later,” Swain commented. Incoming warmer weather is “good news for a lot of folks who need it, but it does mean that the ‘big melt’ is on the way.”

Read more at L.A. Times.