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Welcome winter

half the normal rainfall

Carmen George

(Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012, 4:26 PM)

After several dry months, umbrellas were finally up in the Mountain Area last weekend following the winter's first significant storm. The area received a much needed 5.7 inches of precipitation Friday through Monday said Philip Messerschmitt, visitor information officer for the Bass Lake Ranger District, Sierra National Forest.

Since July, the official start of the rain season, 10.43 inches of rain have fallen in the mountains -- half the precipitation the area saw last year at this time.

"We're glad to see it -- it's been a long time coming," said Coarsegold residents Debbi and Bud Martini Monday while loading groceries at Oakhurst's Old Mill Shopping Center. "It will be a scary fire season this year if we don't have more of it."

"We have friends that went to Lake Tahoe to go skiing recently," Bud said. "They ended up playing golf because there was no snow."

As of Monday, Badger Pass Ski Area in Yosemite National Park hadn't fared any better, with lifts still closed due to lack of snow.

While winter weather has been milder than usual, high winds knocked a large tree branch onto the tent cabin of seasonal Yosemite park ranger Ryan Hiller, 27, in Yosemite Valley Saturday morning, killing him instantly. Hiller was staying at the concessionaire cabin while waiting to join the Badger Pass ski patrol, said Yosemite National Park spokesman Scott Gediman.

"He was known as an exemplary ranger" said Gediman, including working on swift water rescue and on Half Dome.

The following night, about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, saturated soil in Yosemite caused a large rock and debris slide off Highway 120 between Foresta and Yosemite Valley -- the main thoroughfare for visitors from the Bay Area, Gediman said. No one was injured from the slide.

"The best case scenario for the road opening is a couple of weeks ... the worst case is a couple of months," Gediman said.

While that section is now closed, Tioga Road, Highway 120 East through Tuolumne Meadows, was open longer than it has ever been, Gediman said. In preparation for last weekend's snow fall which dropped to about 4,800 feet, Tioga Pass Road finally saw its seasonal closure Jan. 17. Glacier Point Road closed Jan. 19.

"I've been here for 16 years now and this definitely is the driest winter we've had," Gediman said. "This is the first significant precipitation we've had since early November."

The unusually dry winter is due to it being a "La Nina" year, Messerschmitt said, a weather phenomenon where high pressure sitting off the coast keeps the jet stream north, with storms typically reaching no further south than mid-California before heading East.