Experts and residents watch California snowpack with lasers and nervous eyes as temperatures rise

Published May 18, 2023 at 7:40 AM MDT

The snow-covered eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada mountain range is viewed shortly after sunrise after a series of atmospheric river storms brought heavy snowfall to the mountain range on Jan. 22, 2023 in Bishop, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Here & Now‘s Scott Tong speaks with snow scientist Thomas Painter, whose company is using lasers to measure and track one the biggest-ever snow packs in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and Island District community leader Tony Oliveira, whose neighbors are nervously watching the snow melt because water has already flooded 50 miles of farmland in the San Joaquin Valley.

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Snowpack from one of the Airborne Snow Observatories, Kings River Basin, California on March 17, 2023. (Courtesy of Airborne Snow Observatories, Inc.)

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.