MAMMOTH LAKES, California — Since the start of the winter season on Nov. 2, Mammoth Lakes, California, has received 375 inches of snow. In just the past week, since Jan. 9, the town has been inundated with 119 inches of snow. That’s nearly 10 feet of snow burying the resort town. President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for California due to the amount of rain and snow hitting the state all at once.
While Mammoth Lakes is used to winter weather, a local student, Colton Goetz, talked about how schools were affected this week by all this snow. Goetz said, “I do not normally miss school. But this time, we had three red days in a row,” meaning he missed three days of school in a row this week. He added that this “is the most we had in 30 years, which is pretty impressive.”
CALIFORNIA HOMEOWNER IS TRAPPED IN HOUSE FOR TWO DAYS DUE TO RECORD SNOW
All the snow meant a lot of work as well. Goetz, a native of Mammoth, and his uncle spent hours digging out a decent spot in the backyard for their dogs, sometimes twice a day as the snow kept barreling down.
In Mammoth Village, heated sidewalks can’t even keep up and are completely covered with at least 1 1/2 feet of snow. Despite the wind chill of minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit and copious amounts of snow, it’s not all work, and there is still tons of fun to be had. Even as signs are covered, many people could be seen grabbing brunch and perusing through shops. With the three-day weekend for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the resort town was filled with skiers and snowboarders eagerly making their way up the mountain. A blizzard is definitely not a deterrent. Lines could be seen wrapped around the gondola to access the slopes despite people at the rental shop heavily advising inexperienced snowboarders and skiers to skip a trip up the mountain due to the high winds and low visibility from the heavy snowfall.
CALIFORNIA TOWN WILL BE DIGGING OUT OF RECORD SNOW FOR MONTHS
While this is record snow for this time of year, there is a fear from locals the snow will stop. At the moment, they have received a year’s average of snow. However, if the snow were to stop abruptly for the rest of the winter season, it would still not be enough to prevent a drought in the summer.
