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Yosemite: Its Wonders and Its Beauties (1868) by John S. Hittell

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CLIMATE.

The summers in the valley are warm, both night and day. One blanket is required, and is sufficient for comfort towards morning in July nights. The days are seldom oppressively hot; and the winters, notwithstanding the snow, are not very cold. Snow lies every winter for four or five months in the valley, the deepest in the open bottom being seven feet. Along the sides of the valley, however, and especially in the tributary cañons about the falls, where the mist falls and freezes, there are accumulations and drifts a hundred feet deep or more. Avalanches down the steep slopes are common. The snow lies under the shade of the southern wall till July, but it is usually gone from the bottom land before the middle of April. South-east of Sentinel Rock there is a large drift of snow every winter, and it does not disappear altogether till late in the summer. The bottom is marshy in wet seasons till the end of May. Dew falls every night, and it becomes heavier as summer advances, so that persons cannot walk about much with dry feet early in the morning.

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