From KCRA3 – The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab has been analyzing snow data for our region for over 75 years. Andrew Schwartz is the lab’s lead scientist. He said that the trend in the Western U.S. for less snow over recent decades holds for the Sierra Mountains too, but trends for precipitation of all types are headed upward. “We are seeing less snow every year, but we are seeing a little bit of an uptick in precipitation, so there could be a little bit of a tradeoff here. We’re seeing less snow but it has a higher water content when it does fall,” Schwartz said. (more)