EL NINO YEAR SNOWFALL COMPARISON
FOR BIG BEAR LAKE, CA *(PLEASE READ COMMENTS)

*In the above chart, M = missing data. Snowfall records for Big Bear only go back to 1959, so we were limited. We did a separate study of 1980-1998 El Nino years as the averages were more complete, and the outcomes seemed more positive for snowfall than most of the earlier seasons (pre-1980). Please also keep in mind that in many El Nino years, snow levels become a factor so resorts may have actually, and probably did receive more snow than shown above. The averages above are from Big Bear Lake, and are not representative of any certain resort. This is for comparative purposes only, as we also have provided a percentage of "normal".

* VERY interesting notes (at least to us)...

1) The 1965-1966 El Nino season was on the dry side (except October 1965 in which were recorded 16.29" of RAIN, no bad at all!), There were lower than normal precipitation totals Nov-April (10.94"). It is obvious there were some high snow levels that season, and that is always a possibility in an El Nino season with a tropical influence causing alot of the above normal precipitation. The February snowfall data were missing.

2) The 1969-1970 El Nino season had high snow level problems from Jan-Apr, as almost 8" of rain fell in February 1970, with NO SNOW recorded that month! Nov/ Dec 1969 looked cold enough for mostly snow. 18" of precipitation (snow water equivalent, or rain), and 23.5" of snow.

3) The 1972-1973 El Nino season was another bad one as far as snow levels went. 27.06" of precipitation and only 32.5" of snow, which means almost 24" of the 27" was in the form of rain. The bright side was February 1973 with 32" of snow, almost the whole season total.

4) The 1976-1977 El Nino season was a VERY DRY one (3 out of the 9 El Nino's we used in this study were dry). The total precipitation recorded for the season was 6.88". Based on precip to snowfall conversions, all of the .88" of precipitation that fell in December 1976 fell as snow (8"), and the 1.5" of precipitation that fell in March of 1977 fell as snow (17"), with the whole .64" of precip that fell in February 1977 fallin as rain, and the 3" of precipitation that fell in January of 1977 falling as all rain

5) The 1982-1983 El Nino season produced alot of snow and rain. With 30" of precipitation and 115" of snow, it was an active season. There was alot of rain , alot of rain mixed with snow, and alot of wet, heavy snow also.

6) The 1986-1987 El Nino season was on the dry side as far as total precipitation goes, but a decent amount of snow was recorded indicating snow levels usually cooperated.

7) The 1991-1992 El Nino season looked like a good one with over 100" of snow and 17.59" of precipitation; it looks like snow levels were mostly cooperative and snowfall was abundant from Dec-Feb and even into March. Of the 100" of snow, 86" fell from Dec-Feb.

8) The 1994-1995 El Nino season was very wet again, and snowfall was abundant, but some exceptions to this were in January 1995 where 13+" of precipitation fell, and with 47" of snow, some of this 13+" was likely in the form of rain. On the bright side, 47" of snow fell in one month!

9) The 1997-1998 El Nino season was a good one with alot of snow (varying up to over 300") recorded at the resorts. There was also some good late season snowfall with this one.

* In February of 1998, Mt Wilson recorded over 27" of precipitation, and alot of it fell as snow at nearby resorts. Again, due to differing elevations, and how they are usually an issue with nearly every El Nino, this study is not sufficient for comparison with any local resort, just an indicator of what we usually deal with in an El Nino season. Precipitation is usually abundant, but snow levels more than half the time can be troublesome.

* Some of the largest one-month snow totals were in non El Nino years;

-February 1969: 80"!!!
-March 1990: 78.8"!!
-February 1990-59.5"
-January 1979: 50"

-A little side info (useless to most); Palomar Mountain Observatory at an elevation of roughly 5,500' in northern San Diego County recorded 80" of snow in January of 1949, the coldest month ever recorded in Southern California as a whole.

* Alot of data were missing, causing the averages to be skewed in some cases, which would have raised the average snow totals some. The bottom line is that El Nino seasons usually produce well above normal precipitation for Southern California, with snow levels a close call alot of the time. We could go further, but we hope this will suffice for now.