By Gus Thomson, Auburn Journal

For 22 years, Bowman’s Bonnie Lightner has been enjoying a front-row seat from her home overlooking the North Fork American River to the ebbs and flows of the Sierra snowmelt.

This past week things turned sensational.

With the spring snow melt and rains continuing, Lightner watched as the water that continually spills over the Lake Clementine-North Fork dam began to flow more heavily. She judges by how many “dividers” at the top of the dam are obscured by the water and by Wednesday morning, the water was all the way across.

That’s a rare occasion, Lightner said, and indicative of the amount of water now pouring downstream from the mountains.

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