An onslaught of snow in the Lake Tahoe area this month has shattered a record that held up for more than half a century, California researchers say.
As of 8 a.m. local time Wednesday, a total of 210 inches of snow has fallen on the region in December, breaking the previous record of 179 inches in set in 1970, according to the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab.
“We are now at 258% of our average snowpack through this date and we have received 70% of our average annual snowfall,” it added in a tweet.
A vehicle clears snow along Interstate-80 in the Lake Tahoe region this week.
(Placer County Sheriff’s Office)
Data from the snow lab, which is located at Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada, also suggests that this December will end as the third snowiest month-ever for the region.
Its top two snowiest on record are 238 inches in January 2017 and 221 inches in February 2019.
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Footage posted on Facebook by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office showed crews clearing away a wall of snow alongside Interstate-80.
UC Berkeley says it now manages the snow lab after it was built by the then-U.S. Weather Bureau and Army Corps of Engineers in 1946.
