100 WVIA Way
Pittston, PA 18640

Phone: 570-826-6144
Fax: 570-655-1180

Copyright © 2022 WVIA, all rights reserved. WVIA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations

Experts and residents watch California snowpack with lasers and nervous eyes as temperatures rise

The snow-covered eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada mountain range is viewed shortly after sunrise after a series of atmospheric river storms brought heavy snowfall to the mountain range on Jan. 22, 2023 in Bishop, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The snow-covered eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada mountain range is viewed shortly after sunrise after a series of atmospheric river storms brought heavy snowfall to the mountain range on Jan. 22, 2023 in Bishop, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Here & Now‘s Scott Tong speaks with snow scientist Thomas Painter, whose company is using lasers to measure and track one the biggest-ever snow packs in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and Island District community leader Tony Oliveira, whose neighbors are nervously watching the snow melt because water has already flooded 50 miles of farmland in the San Joaquin Valley.

Watch on YouTube.

Snowpack from one of the Airborne Snow Observatories, Kings River Basin, California on March 17, 2023. (Courtesy of Airborne Snow Observatories, Inc.)

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.