395 is always my preferred route in the northwest, and after two days of doing the Nevada deserts I grabbed it and kept going from Reno, to Honey Lake, CA, southward of Susanville.
First off, seeing the Sierras is a complete shock. There is no snow at all except some dustings in the shady places at the tops. Official estimates are 5-9% of normal snowpack, a completely absurd number. Last fall I speculated how ugly things would get if they even had normal snow; it didn’t occur to me they wouldn’t get any.
Back in Las Vegas, Lake Mead is at 40% normal level. This will supply the Colorado until it gets to 0%, but there is no snowpack to bring it up. It’s like my batteries in the winter: after a few days of discharging them, it takes several days to get them charged again. Filling Lake Mead could take decades.
Oddly, I’m making great time towards the Columbia River, but might be stopped tomorrow in Oregon by snow. I am driving straight into a cold and wet thing and could well get stopped dead along the way. I have no options to change direction as the front covers the entire region.
My best bet is to get into a safe spot tomorrow then watch to see what happens.
In other words, in the worst possible draught imaginable, I run the risk of getting snowed in….