Few places experience both the beauty and the fury of California's natural world like South Lake Tahoe. The picturesque city of 21,000, nestled high in the Sierra Nevada mountains and famed for its ski resorts, has endured a wildfire, drought, and now, dangerous amounts of snow - all in a roughly two-year period. Throughout March, high-altitude storm systems known as atmospheric rivers pummelled South Lake Tahoe during what climate scientists have dubbed a winter for the history books. The heavy snowfall and precipitation collapsed roofs, closed grocery stores, trapped residents in their homes, and rendered highways impassable. Parts of the region remain under flood advisories that could continue into spring, as the snow is expected to melt with incoming rain and warmer temperatures. City leaders and climate scientists say that the weather extremes South Lake Tahoe is experiencing portend a dramatic future for the entire state. "Moving to the mountains you have a healthy respect for what that brings," Lindsey Baker, a deputy city manager for South Lake Tahoe told BBC News. "But the extraordinary nature of this season, the year and a half of natural disasters that we faced as a community….We are facing the direct impacts of climate change." This video can not be played Watch: Man in waist-high snow in unusually severe winter in California California rang in the New Year with a series of atmospheric rivers which caused historic flooding and landslides up and down the state. Several people died. Another bout began in late February and early March, dumping historic levels of snow in the state's high-elevation mountain ranges. Snow accumulated on the peaks around Los Angeles, even at lower elevations where precipitation usually falls as rain. While beautiful, and a relief for the state's dwindling water supply, the storms wreaked havoc. Multiple counties are under emergency orders.... |