- Kathleen Scavone
- Posted On
The Living Landscape: Snow in Lake County
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Snow in Lake County is such a rare commodity that, for some people it can create a sort of euphoria.
Snowfall in Lake County usually only occurs once or twice a season at the lower elevations. But with Cobb Mountain, at an elevation of 4,721 feet – along with other high points in Lake County such as Mt. Konocti at 4, 304 feet and the majestic Snow Mountain at 7, 043 feet – the white, wintry stuff transpires more often.
The crunchy, crispy aspects of walking on a field of fresh fallen snow bring thoughts of, “Snow day!” for students and school teachers alike. Thoughts of hot cocoa, snowmen and solitary walks are all on the “to do” list on a snowy day.
Right before the snow falls, it “prepares” you with its gentleness and quiet. Then, it's as though the heavens were a great flour mill dusting all below with its white stuff.
Varieties of snow are numerous: thin-crusted, dry and feathery, wet, hard-packed, or fluffy and wooly.
The type of snow cover which occurs during any given weather event is said to by determined by the particular variety of snow crystals it contains.
Once the unique snow crystals descend to earth, they begin to metamorphous into ice granules, and the type of crystal falling is what establishes the way the snow collects, or drifts on the ground.
The recent snowfall was of a “lighter” or less “wet” variety of precipitation than that which occurred here a few years back.
Then, a walk in the woods appeared as a disaster zone, with violently jagged tree limbs pointing askew, looking deeply wounded and exposed.
The very noise the heavy snow-pack provoked upon the woods was an assault on the senses: crack!
There went another tree-sized limb, seemingly one after the other. It wreaked havoc not only visually, but made for hazardous driving conditions and mounds of cleanup efforts.
Most likely, there was more than one bird or squirrel nest (drey) obliterated as a result of the prior storm's damage.
In nature, many creatures can be affected by snow, depending on the depth and duration of flakes.
It only takes about an inch of snow to conceal a mouse from a hunter like a hawk. Seed-feeding birds have difficulty obtaining enough nourishment during an extended snow cover, while a deep snow of over six inches creates difficulty for deer to escape, say , a bobcat.
A bobcat is a very capable hunter in most any weather, hunting rabbits and rodents, and even eats insects.
Snow can have a positive effect on nature's small critters. According to Stoke's Nature Guide, snow hides insects from birds and other predators, thereby increasing the insect population.
Although any form of precipitation is welcomed during this extended drought period, the recent snow fall did little to restore the coffers.
For some great water-saving tips, see Hidden Valley Lake's Community Services District Web site:
http://www.hiddenvalleylakecsd.com/watertip.htm .
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.