Friday April 8, 2022
SF Gate —
The heat is on.
Record-breaking temperatures are expected across California Thursday and Friday with the mercury rising up to 25 to 30 degrees above normal.
UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain referred to the sweltering weather as a “major early spring heat wave” and said it may be “most consequential in the Sierra Nevada” where the snowpack is already well below normal after a record-dry January, February and March, experts said.
“The recent rate of Sierra Nevada snowmelt is extraordinary,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain wrote on Twitter, noting that the snow water equivalent of the snow pack was only 30% of average for the date on April 6. “With upcoming heat wave, it’s starting to seem possible that vast majority of snowpack could be gone by mid-late April.”