Study says California’s 2023 snowy rescue from megadrought was a freak event. Don’t get used to it

BY BRITTANY PETERSON AND SETH BORENSTEIN
Updated 3:18 PM EDT, April 29, 2024

DENVER (AP) — Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a two decade long megadrought, was essentially a once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found.

Don’t get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study authors coined the term “snow deluge” for one-in-20-year heavy snowfalls, when it’s cold and wet enough to maintain a deep snowpack through April 1. But even among these rare snow deluges, last year’s stood out as the snowiest, edging out 1922 in snow water equivalent, said study lead author Adrienne Marshall, a hydrologist at the Colorado School of Mines.

It’s timing couldn’t be better. Last year’s snow came after a megadrought that started around the turn of the century and was one of the worst in more than 1,000 years. That drought is gone now.

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