Thursday, April 9, 1998 | 8:33 a.m.
That's because the greatest likelihood of high water from this year's Sierra snowpack would come if there's a warm, wet storm. And the possibility of that diminishes as the middle of May approaches.
"The rate at which the snow melts and if heavy rainfall is added to the snowmelt runoff determines the severity of any flooding," National Weather Service hydrologist Gary Barbato said on Wednesday.
"Heavy rainfall at high elevations during snowmelt would cause the worst spring flooding. However, this scenario will become unlikely after mid May, when storm severity and frequency decrease significantly," he said.
Barbato accurately forecast last month's close call with flooding in the Sierra and western Nevada. He and his co-workers at the weather service were equally accurate in predicting that the threat would fall short.
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