Since moving to California, we have been in a drought.  There has not been a huge amount of rain and, more importantly, the snowfalls over the Sierras have been very limited.  Sometimes I have flown over the mountains and they have been pretty bare.  Since the snow pack is a primary source of water for the reservoirs, this is a big deal.  This winter has been different.  We have received a lot of rain along the coastal areas and the mountains have been getting a decent amount of snow.  I flew across a while back and, as we looked down on the mountains, they were totally covered.  Normally the snow is clear but the other features show up well too like the forests.  This time, everything looked white.  It was one uniform texture across everything.  I imagine that, not only had a lot of snow fallen but it had fallen recently and hadn’t yet shaken off the trees.  It looked amazing out of the window of the plane!