Santa Cruz Sentinel: When a single snowflake falls peacefully atop a Sierra peak, it begins a turbulent journey to help quench the thirst of a drought-stricken state.
In most years, Sierra snow provides a third of California's water supply. But it is by far the least reliable portion -- and now, after three years of historically low snowfall, tensions are soaring over how we share the shrinking bounty of this great frozen reservoir.
Today, on the cusp of a long, dry summer, we follow the melting snow -- and meet...