An intensely wet winter in California may have caused disruption—but it has also caused a bustling ski season.
Throughout February, 133 inches inches of snow fell on Mammoth Mountain, the popular ski destination reports on its website. This is compared to 119 feet last year, which was also a very wet year. The mountain also saw 95 inches in March.
Big Bear Mountain, a popular resort in Big Bear Lake, is also experiencing a flurry of visitors after a further two feet of snow was dumped on them over the past weekend, local outlet KTLA reported.
The storm that fell on southern California over Easter weekend was just the most recent seen in the state over the past few months.
It has been a particularly wet winter for the state ever since atmospheric rivers started descending at the beginning of February.
A rare blizzard warning was in place across the northern and central Sierra Nevada from the end of February until the beginning of March. This saw a dramatic dumping of snowfall in California's mountains.
Big Bear alone sees around 3,000,000 visitors each year. And the skiing slopes may be set to get even more popular.
In just March alone, the region saw four feet of snow, KTLA reported.
Although the ski season starts in November and lasts until April, the new dumping of snow could mean it extends.
Officials at Big Bear told KTLA that it could extend "well into April." However, specific end dates have not yet been announced.
Heavy snowfall in California is not especially common. In fact, until last year, the state had suffered from prolonged drought conditions due to a lack of precipitation in the state.
This year is an El Nino year, which brings wetter than usual weather to the West Coast. However, experts have also put an increase in extreme weather events down to climate change, which seems to be intensifying weather conditions across the globe.
Last year, intense winter storms caused a record amount of snowpack in the surrounding mountains. This ultimately caused the drought to end, bringing much-needed relief to the state.
It is unlikely that California's snowpack will reach the levels of last year, but the dumping of snow still means good things for the water supply, as well as ski season.
Officials will know soon when the California Department of Water Resources conducts its snow survey. This will tell them how much snowpack has accumulated. The April snow survey is when seasonal snowpack is at its peak, KTLA reported.
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