Snowfall in CA in Jan
I was curious about the heavy snowfall in CA and whether there was any relationship to SST (La Nina, other). So, I found the 10 snowiest Mammoth Lakes snowfalls from 1968 onwards.
I then composited them with a few different SST datasets.The heavier snowfall does seem to be associated with increased SST's near the western pacific (Japan).
I excluded the later snowy years and got a similar plot but without the Atlantic SST anomalies but still with the western Pacific SST anomalies. I then looked at some other variables including 500mb heights 
. There does seem to be a wavetrain possibly originating from that region of the Pacific.
. There does seem to be a wavetrain possibly originating from that region of the Pacific.I didn't include this year though it most likely will have one of the top 10 snowfalls in Mammoth. Certainly there are warm SST's in that region for this year (Dec).
Cathy