Misty sunrise, Half Dome, Merced River, and clouds, Yosemite NP, CA, USA

Misty sunrise, Half Dome, Merced River, and clouds, from yesterday morning

Northern California received some desperately-needed rain over the weekend. Most of that rain fell further north, so while Yosemite Valley got around 2.6 inches of rain, Blue Canyon, along Interstate 80 west of Lake Tahoe, got over 9 inches. But I’m not complaining. I’ll take whatever we can get, and those areas further north need the rain just as much as we do.

Like the last storm, this one also had a good sense of timing, clearing just before sunrise Monday morning. I rose early and photographed at several locations in Yosemite Valley, but my favorite image was this one of Half Dome from along the Merced River. I’ve posted other sunrise images from this spot before, but the cloud formations above Half Dome yesterday were exceptional.

The snow levels with this system were high, above 8,000 feet most of the time. I haven’t been able to find snow totals for Tuolumne Meadows, but Mammoth Mountain got two to three feet of snow, and Tuolumne probably got similar amounts.

The waterfalls in Yosemite Valley got a big boost from this storm. Their flow will diminish as the immediate runoff from the storm dissipates, but that new high-elevation snowpack will help feed the waterfalls for awhile, and we should see near-normal water flow for at least the next month or so.

The watershed for Horsetail Fall, however, is lower than for Yosemite and Bridalveil falls. I’m sure some snow fell in Horsetail’s drainage over the weekend, but not much. Nevertheless, between this storm and the previous one I think there’s enough snow to melt and feed Horsetail for awhile. The best window of light for Horsetail is about February 16th through 23rd, and my guess is that we’ll have a pretty decent flow during that time. It will probably be a little below average, but better than it’s been the last couple of years.

Warm weather is predicted for this week, which should help melt some of the snow and keep things flowing. There’s a chance of showers in the forecast for Sunday, and hints of a bigger storm next week in the long-range models. We need all the rain and snow we can get, so keep doing those rain dances!

— Michael Frye

Related Posts: A Perfectly-Timed Storm; The Best Time to Photograph Horsetail Fall, Revised; Horsetail Fall Questions

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Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author or principal photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, Yosemite Meditations for Women, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. He has also written three eBooks: Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Landscapes in Lightroom 5: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.