Snow,hydrology or the Bear Creek Basin, Sierra Nevada

Bear Creek is one of a few gauged streams on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada with a natural flow regime. The watershed above the gauging station is free of water management activities, roads, construction, forest harvesting, and most human influences. The streamflow record covers almost 80 years, and a few snow courses have been measured for more than 50 years. These characteristics allow Bear Creek to serve as an indicator of natural hydrologic processes in the mid- to upper-elevation portions of the Sierra Nevada snow zone. The cursory examination of the snowpack and streamflow records provide some general descriptive information that may be applicable to ungaged Sierra Nevada watersheds and suggests that there has been a slight increase in precipitation, snowpack, and streamflow in the past couple of decades.