The Central and Southern Sierra pages are inactive & incomplete, and will remain so until I get to constructing the associated sections of the trail guide.

Consult the All Sierra Weather page for complete information, if not as well organized by Sierra region.

Our goal is to provide pinpoint backpacking weather conditions information to supplement trail guide descriptions with good gear-selection information. Thick information for all aspects of your trip planning considerations.

In the meantime we've got a bird's eye view of High Sierra weather informaton up and down the Sierra Crest on the All Sierra Weather page.

The custom weather pages covering the trails between Tahoe to Sonora Pass are almost completed. The rest will follow, eventually.

In the meantime, use the All Sierra Weather page.

All
Sierra Nevada Weather
resources

High Sierra Calendar

Anticipate!
High Sierra Fire
and
Smoke Information

NORTHERN
SIERRA WEATHER
(Working)

CENTRAL
SIERRA WEATHER
(Partial-incomplete)

SOUTHERN
SIERRA WEATHER
(static-incomplete)

Fire Season?

California Smoke Information Webcams
Add All Webcam Layers to Smoke Sensor Coverage

Smoke Resources

ALL
HIGH SIERRA
CRESTLINE SNOW REPORTS
by

Watershed
&
Highway Corridor
with
Snow Depth, Wind, Temp,
&
Snow Water Content Tables

All
Real-Time Station Access
Scroll Down

MORE
Track these Selected Station Readings over time on the
HIGH SIERRA BACKPACKER'S CALENDAR
And
Find all their Associated Crestline, Watershed, and Highway Corridor Stations grouped together,
Below

Hwys
80 & 50

Hwy
88 W

Hwy
108 E

Hwy
120 W

Hwy
395

Kings
River

East Flank

West Flank

Tahoe Basin
Watershed

Trail Map

Station Map

TYT-PCT
TRT
Rubicon 2
7618 feet

TYT-PCT
TRT
Echo Peak
7652 feet

TYT-PCT
TRT
Echo Peak 5
7800 feet

Tahoe Reporting Stations On
a
Map

Scroll over stations for snow & temps. Click for
full report.

ALL
TAHOE BASIN
Road Reports

ALL
Road Reports

American-Yuba Watersheds

Trail Map

Carson Pass Area
Station Map

TYT-PCT
Carson Pass
8388 feet

Carson Pass
Area
Reporting Stations

Carson Pass
8353 feet

Road Report

Hwy
4
E & W

Hwy
4
East

PCT
Ebbetts Pass
8765 feet

Trail Map

Ebbetts Pass Area Stations

Road Report

Carson-
Walker
Watersheds

Drains
West

Mokelumne-Stanislaus Watersheds

Highland Meadow
8360 feet

Trail Map

East
Flank

Carson-
Walker
Watersheds

Leavitt Lake
9617 feet

Trail Map

Leavitt Meadow
7198 feet

Marine Base
FULL REPORT
VIS-CHIL-WEA-MB-WIND
6748 feet

HWY
108

Road Report

West Flank

Mokelumne-Stanislaus Watersheds

TYT-PCT
Sonora Pass
8827 feet

Hwy
108
West

Deadman Creek
9250 feet

Trail Map

Horse Meadow
8602 feet

Trail Map

Tuolumne-Merced
Watersheds

Trail Map

Tenaya Lake
8163 feet

TYT-PCT
TYTTuolumne Meadows
8600 feet

Tioga Pass/Dana
9798 feet

Hwy
120

CalTrans

Road Reports

Yosemite

Road Reports

Mammoth Mountain Ski
RESORT

Trail Map

Mono Lake-Owens Basin Watershed

Gem Pass
10750 feet

Mammoth Pass
9500 feet

West
Flank
Middle San J

Trail Map

JMT-PCT Junction
Devils Postpile
8004 feet

West
Flank
East of Bear Ridge
Mono Creek

Trail Map

East of
JMT-PCT
E of Bear Ridge
Volcanic Knob
10100 feet

South Lake Cabin
9580 feet

Trail Map

Big Pine Sawmill
10,200 feet

West
Flank

Kings
River

Kings River
Watershed

Trail Map

Above
JMT-PCT
Bishop Pass
11972 feet

Just West
of
JMT-PCT Charlotte Lake
10398 feet

Trail Map

Kern
River

Kern Watershed

Trail Map

JMT-PCT
Upr Tyndall Creek
11,441 feet

JMT
Crabtree Meadow
10,700 feet

Trail Map

California Webcams & Smoke Sensors
Add All Webcam Layers to Smoke Sensor Coverage

Reporting Station
Networks

Snotel

Click Snotel above,
&
Scroll Down
for:

Meso West
REPORTING STATIONS

&
Also See:

Ca Dept Water Resources

MORE DATA

Daily
Snow Sensor Report

All
CDEC Snow Info

H2O ?
Figure it Out
Convert
Water into Snow
&
Back Again!

Snow Water Content
vs.
Snow Depth?

Snow Water Equivalent, Density, Temp,
and
Snow Depth

TOP

CALIFORNIA
Spring Thaw
River Forecasting
Central

ALL CA GOV
WATER
INFO

BELOW
Selected
California
Forecasts, Stages, & Reports

Massive Number of
Resources
Curated for the High Sierra Backpacker

SPRING THAW

Peak
Stream Flow
Forecasts

WHEN?

Selected
Stage Reports

Current
San Joaquin

Current
American-Bear-Yuba

Current
Truckee-Carson-Walker

All
Current River
Stages

Forecast
Bulletins

Selected
Bulletins

San Joaquin River

East Sierra

California
Reservoirs Graphic

All
Drought-Flood Information

The "point" of these various readings and measurements are to let us know when river flows get ripping.

We can rest assured the High Sierra fords will be raging when the Valley is threatened by high flows or under water.

Combined with our observations of the rate of the snow pack, above, and on the High Sierra Calendar, we can get some idea of river flows way up in the High Sierra.

Forecast
Guidance Plots

Selected
Plot Reports

Mokelumne at Bensens Ferry near Thornton, 0'.

Stanislaus at ORANGE BLOSSOM BRIDGE,117'.

TUOLUMNE RIVER AT MODESTO (MOD). 90'.

Merced at Pohono Br Nr Yosemite,
3862'.

San Joaquin Newman, 90'.

San Joaquin Patterson, 97'.

East FK Carson,
NR Markleeville, 5400'.

West Walker NR Hwy 395 below Little Walker, 5520'.

TOP

Our Goal

Clarity

After using the snow and temp reporting stations to track our Fall into Winter and Winter into Spring's snow and temperature profiles we will turn to using them to monitor the change in weather bringing the rise of temps into the Spring Thaw.

We will now use our High Sierra reporting station observation tools to monitor the warming and melting snow pack in conjunction with deploying our water tools to observe the rate of rising rivers.
The pace of the melting and the rising of the rivers should give us a pretty good idea of just when the Spring Thaw River Flows are becoming dangerous, if not impassable in the High Country.

That's the goal, to determine when the main flow of the Spring Thaw reaches critical dangerous phases. In the meantime we can track the line of muck, melt, and mosquitoes as the thaw line leads an explosion of life moving up the Sierra Flanks.

We either want to be there as that happens, or wait awhile until it and the associated dangerous fording conditions calm down a bit. We do want to miss any catastrophic melts and flows... but your timing really depends on what you're in it for. We want to get the best picture of what's happening right now. It's up to you decide if that's good for you.

You decide if those conditions match your expectations, fitness, gear, and skills. But we've got to understand, even with as good a look as we can get using all the technical and personal means at our disposal, we are still entering the unknown.

Know That Clearly!

TOP

Backpacker Forums

Have a great Sierra Nevada route or trip to relate? Have a backpacking tip or trouble to share?

Post it on
TahoetoWhitney.Org

Experiences, comments, or pictures about this topic? Post them up in the Weather Forum:

High Sierra Backpacker Weather Resources

Trailhead

Contact
Alex Wierbinski

top of page

Below: Meiss Country Winter morning Below:Bear at the Silver King Creek, Carson-Iceberg

High Sierra
Backpacking

Trail Guide

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Weather

Gear

High Sierra Weather Information
for
Backpackers and Hikers

Index and Introduction

Languages

Trail Skills

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Safety

Food

Planning

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Information

Social

Backpacker Forums

Have a great Sierra Nevada route or trip to relate? Have a backpacking tip or trouble to share?

Experiences, comments, or pictures about this topic? Post them up in the Weather Forum:

High Sierra Backpacker Weather Resources

Contact
Alex Wierbinski

Backpacking Lake Tahoe to Mount Whitney

Your guide to the High Sierra Crest, including the Tahoe to Yosemite, Pacific Crest, and John Muir Trails

© Lake Tahoe to Mount Whitney: Crown Jewel of the Pacific Crest Trail

High Sierra Backpacking

Trail Guide

Forums

Sierra Weather

Gear

High Sierra Weather Information for Backpackers and Hikers

Index and Introduction

Languages

Trail Skills

Mountain Safety

Food

Planning

Trail Arts

More Information

Social

Backpacker Forums

Have a great Sierra Nevada route or trip to relate? Have a backpacking tip or trouble to share?

Experiences, comments, or pictures about this topic? Post them up in the Weather Forum:

High Sierra Backpacker Weather Resources

Contact Alex Wierbinski

Backpacking Lake Tahoe to Mount Whitney

Your guide to the High Sierra Crest, including the Tahoe to Yosemite, Pacific Crest, and John Muir Trails

© Lake Tahoe to Mount Whitney: Crown Jewel of the Pacific Crest Trail

High Sierra
Backpacking

Sierra
Weather

High Sierra Weather Information
for
Backpackers and Hikers

Mountain
Safety

More
Information

Contact
Alex Wierbinski