It's Tuesday. What the record snowpack looks like up close. Plus, a state ban on salmon fishing is expected this week. |
 | | Packs of snow along the Sierra Nevada.Erin Schaff/The New York Times |
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With the rainy season coming to a close, determining exactly how much snow has piled up in the Sierra Nevada this winter is critical to predicting California's future water supplies. |
As it melts in warmer months, the Sierra Nevada snowpack typically provides about 30 percent of the state's water by filling rivers and reservoirs. But how do you measure all that snow? |
On Friday, a twin turboprop aircraft from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration departed from Reno and flew a five-hour course over the Sierra, using sensors mounted on the airplane to make its calculations. Erin Schaff, a staff photographer for The New York Times, shot stunning photos and video from that flight, as it wound through narrow valleys and hovered just above tall alpine trees to gauge the amount of water in the deep white carpets below. You can see her images here, and read more about the snowpack from Raymond Zhong, a Times climate reporter. |
"By flying at a low level — they fly like 500 feet above the ground — they're able to get a quick, accurate read on everything," Erin told me. The "scientist who was on the plane said she's been doing this for 20 years, and it's the most snow she's ever seen." |
In the northern Sierra, where runoff feeds several major reservoirs, the water in the snowpack is nearly double the historical average for this point in the year. In the southern Sierra, it's around triple the average, Raymond wrote. |
The scientist, Carrie Olheiser, a snow hydrologist with the research organization RTI International who supports NOAA's snow-survey missions, said the comparison between the snow levels of the past few years and this year was "night and day." |
The team regularly flies the same flight paths through craggy mountains to record snow levels. Given the kind of adventurous, low-level flying that's required to make the measurements, Olheiser keeps handwritten notes of things to watch out for on each leg of the journey, Erin said. |
At one point during the flight, Olheiser told Erin that the next segment would probably be a little testy. |
"All I have in my notes is just 'screaming,' so I think this one is going to be scary," Erin recalled Olheiser telling her. "Just do your best." |
 | | Juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon at the Coleman National Fish Hatchery in Anderson.Max Whittaker for The New York Times |
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- Salmon ban: Officials are expected this week to shut down all salmon fishing off California for 2023 in response to an alarming decline of fish stocks. Scientists and fishers had been braced for bad numbers, but the fish counts this year were even more dismal than expected.
- CalFresh changes: In June, the state's food benefits program will end two temporary rules that expanded eligibility to college students who are eligible for federal or state work-study and those whose families cannot contribute financially to their education, EdSource reports.
- What's going at Twitter: On Monday, the platform's blue bird icon was replaced on some accounts by a doge, a popular online icon of a Shiba Inu dog that has become synonymous with a type of cryptocurrency. Twitter also took away the verification check mark from some accounts, including that of The New York Times.Also, the city of San Francisco will not pay for Twitter verification under Elon Musk's new plan to remove blue check marks from users who do not subscribe to a monthly fee, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
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- Depopulating jails: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will consider a sweeping proposal that calls for the depopulation of the Los Angeles County jails, angering an organization representing police chiefs, The Los Angeles Daily News reports.
- Police abortion squad: Before Roe v. Wade, the Los Angeles Police Department had an abortion squad, which pursued abortion providers and patients who sought the procedure. Read more in The Los Angeles Times.
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- Rising reservoir: The water level in the San Luis Reservoir, a large lake along Highway 152 and the state's fifth-largest reservoir, has risen 144 feet since November, The Mercury News reports.
- Sewage in Tulare Lake: Since 2016, a compost facility in the Tulare Lake Basin has been converting tons of sewage from Los Angeles County into fertilizer. Now there are concerns the facility could become an environmental disaster if it's overwhelmed by floodwaters this spring, The Los Angeles Times reports.
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- Mail theft: Thousands of residents of the Mission District of San Francisco may be missing mail after a carrier was robbed of keys that open postal boxes, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
- 'Tranq' death: Santa Clara County has recorded its first death from xylazine, a sedative tranquilizer for large animals like horses that has increasingly been detected in illegal drugs, The San Jose Mercury News reports.
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 | | Pierre Galant |
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For $900,000: An 1895 Victorian in Los Angeles, a two-bedroom condominium in San Diego or a 1929 Tudor Revival house in El Cerrito. |
 | | James Ransom for The New York Times. |
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 | | Bloom hunters in a field of daisies at the Carrizo Plain National Monument.Stella Kalinina for The New York Times |
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After a very rainy winter, spring has arrived in California. Whether it's road trips, festivals, sunny afternoons or wildflower sightings, tell us your favorite part of spring in the Golden State. |
 | | Mason Photography |
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And before you go, some good news |
In the spring of 2018, Jennifer Nicole Walters and John Clark Palicka participated in the Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco with some of their friends. |
Later that day, the pair — both U.S. Air Force pilots who met a few years earlier while stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Solano County — bought a bottle of Champagne. (Walters is an unabashed Champagne enthusiast.) They drank bubbly on the lawn at Crissy Field, just east of the Golden Gate Bridge. |
Up until that year, Walters and Palicka had viewed their relationship as platonic. But that was beginning to shift. |
"It was kind of one of those flashbulb moments where you look at the person and the background and you realize this is the new trajectory of my life," Walters told The Times. |
Fast forward five years: The two were married last month and had a reception filled with revelry, heartfelt speeches and, of course, gobs of Champagne. |
Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow. — Soumya |
Briana Scalia and Maia Coleman contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com. |
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