Competition time. Welcome to the 39th Tioga pass Prognosticator. Spring opening 2025

[Mark Sedenquist]

Today, Tucson's temperature officially reached 100°F, known locally as "Ice Out on the Rillito",

I had never heard of this, so, of course I wanted to know more. It is similar to the Tioga Pass Prognosticator Challenge!

[AZBuck]

When I was going to school here in the late '80s, I remember hearing it referred to as "Ice Out on the Rillito", but that may have been me remembering my time in Maine where Ice Out is the term used, and actually means something. Apparently the 'official' name here is Ice Break on the Santa Cruz, into which the Rillito 'flows'. And yes, there is a contest run by a local TV station to guess the date each Spring when that happens.

AZBuck

[Southwest Dave]

Settled weather, warm temperatures and blue skies would suggest Spring has arrived to Yosemite and is melting the snow away, fast!


Image courtesy of Yosemite Conservancy.

I believe that Caltrans have started plowing the road from Lee Vining to the East entrance to Yosemite, but I have not seen any mention of the Yosemite crews being deployed to set up for plowing the Tioga pass, or Glacier point for that matter. I would imagine them to start in the coming days, unless there are other reasons at play, apart form the current conditions which seem ideal.

Dave

[Mark Sedenquist]

One thing that could be delaying the start of plowing on the Yosemite NP side, is that there could have been firings and layoffs, courtesy of the Federal government. We know that several thousand NPS employees were fired -- and scores of them were at Yosemite.

Hopefully, they managed to retain most of the skilled positions on the highway crews.

The melting of the snow in the web cam is accelerating at a pace I would never have thought possible. Streams and waterfalls are going to be rockin'!

Mark