NID: Snow ‘Reservoir’ In Good Shape – This Year

Mitch Brown jammed the blade of his loader into a two-story pile of snow outside Donner Ski Shop, the sports rental store he runs. From there, Old Highway 40 toward bustling ski resorts was lined with walls of snow more than 20 feet high. “It snowed nearly 24 feet in 12 days,” Brown said recently. “We’ve been working 18-hour days to clear it. This winter’s bumper crop of snow — on the heels of the worst drought in 500 years — underscores the threat to this central source of water for western Nevada County and most of California.