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Here at one of the snowiest places in the country, Ed Bischoff marveled at a view that had been absent for years.

A number of early winter storms, strengthened by El Niño conditions, had covered the northern Sierra Nevada in white. Fresh snow weighed down towering evergreens along Interstate 80. On local roads, street signs peeked out of snowbanks more than 7 feet high.

Bischoff remembered the drive to Sugar Bowl ski resort last year, when the landscape was mostly dirt. The only snow was man-made — narrow strips of powder on the slopes that had managed to stay open.

“There was no snow on the road, no snow anywhere until you got here,” he said, gazing up at the mountains he had frequented for years. “It was all brown everywhere.”

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