Candy Weather

We can call it 'candy weather' because it is yummy/nice in the moment but we know that in the long term this dry, warm, sunny winter isn't good for us. We had a couple small, warm storms in the past two weeks but it's almost a month since our biggest storm (rain). Up on Clouds Rest(9960') the other day there were no clouds, no crowds and almost no snow. This photo from near the summit shows two snow-free roches moutonees on the left and some other dome.

Buckeyes are green, redbuds are pink in the Merced Canyon west of the park. More flowers are blooming and there are a couple of slopes with hundreds of poppies out.

The Merced River has slowly dropped back below average flow after the storms of 6-8 February and it continues to shrink. Yosemite Falls looks good, but at this rate it won't be much in July. Vernal was 3 modest strings yesterday and some ground squirrels have already been active at the top of Vernal for at least a week.

March 1 snow surveys show the Merced watershed's snowpack with 12% of normal water content. Candy is good; candy is bad.