Frank Gehrke of the state Department of Water Resources pulls gear to Gin Flat in the Sierra. The site is an ideal spot to test the premise that a warming climate will bring more flooding and less snowpack to fill reservoirs in mid-summer. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Frank Gehrke checks a sensor at Gin Flat in Yosemite National Park. He is concerned about how erratic snowpack levels have become during his 27 years of measuring: thick in 2005-06, extra-thin last year and slightly above normal so far this winter. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Frank Gehrke checks a sensor. Gehrke and other scientists have equipped 11 sites in Yosemite National Park with high-tech monitors, turning one of America’s most famous parks into an electronic snow laboratory. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)
“A lot of the reservoirs are pretty low from last year,” Frank Gehrke says. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Frank Gehrke approaches the snow monitoring system, which is like a Rosetta Stone for California’s water supply. It’s where the convergence of snow, sun and temperature enables scientists to predict floods or drought. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Frank Gehrke tows 60 pounds of equipment along the snow-covered Tioga Road. As caretaker of Gin Flat, he needed more power to fuel all the equipment at the site he helped develop. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)
