Weather
Another major winter pattern is expected to impact the West this weekend, bringing significant snowfall to California. Most of the snow for the Sierra will come from two storm systems, one on Saturday and one on Monday with lingering snowfall in between. This series of storms will be warm but still mostly snow, albeit dense snow. This is a finicky forecast, with borderline temperatures creating boom-or-bust conditions for the region. All numbers below are for mid-resort elevations; keep in mind that totals below will be much lower.
Precipitation from the first storm will start in California on Friday night into early Saturday morning. Snow levels should be right around Lake Level, so resort bases may see a mix of snow and sleet/rain on Friday night. Accumulations by the time lifts are spinning on Saturday morning will be minor, in the 1-3” range of fairly dense snow due to relatively warm temperatures.
Snowfall will continue during the day on Saturday, bringing 3-6” of dense snow to resorts along the Sierra Crest (Sugar Bowl, Palisades, Kirkwood) and 1-3” elsewhere. Mammoth will pick up 3-5”.
On Saturday night, resorts in the western Lake Tahoe basin will see 4-8” with 2-4” elsewhere. Sunday will bring free refills with similar totals as Saturday night during the day.
Storm #2 arrives on Sunday evening, dropping 4-8” by Monday morning at west lake resorts and 2-4” at other resorts. Monday is poised to be a deep day with heavy snowfall dropping 5-10” of dense snow at west lake resorts and 2-5” at other ski areas. Some models are indicating a surprising amount of precipitation making it to the eastern side of the lake on Monday, so don’t be surprised if Heavenly and Mt. Rose end up exceeding the forecast. Mammoth should be excellent on Monday with 6-10” of fresh snow during the day.
Overall, here are reasonable storm totals by Tuesday morning:
- Sugar Bowl: 25-35”
- Palisades Tahoe: 30-40”
- Kirkwood: 25-35”
- Northstar: 10-20”
- Mt. Rose: 10-20”
- Heavenly: 10-20”
- Mammoth: 15-25”
