Three weeks after Tahoe’s biggest snowstorm in decades, Donner Summit has as much dirt as snow. Feet of powder quickly disappeared, as rain and unusually warm temperatures depleted gains from the February blizzard that had been cheered at the time as a potential season-saving event. California’s snowpack is already its lowest since 2015, and record-shattering March heat arriving next week will make it worse. The rate of melting is “unprecedented,” said Tim Bardsley, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service office in Reno. The entire snowpack, he said, has been wiped away along sunny parts of the Lake Tahoe shoreline.

Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:

• Las Vegas Review-Journal: Heat dome could kill hopes of boosting record-low snowpack in Colorado River Basin
• KOAA (Colorado Springs, Colo.): Beyond something to drink: Colorado snowpack
• Steamboat Pilot & Today (Colo.): Colorado River forecast warns that just one-third of normal water could flow to Lake Powell
• The Guardian (U.K.): Blistering early-season heatwave threatens California and other western states
• Action News Now (Chico, Calif.): Scott River snow results raise water supply concerns in Yreka
• National Integrated Drought Information System (NOAA): News release: Record snowpack deficits worsen in February; conditions expected to deteriorate further with chances for record heat