As Ridge Moves West Expect Major Pattern Change

 The models have been pretty consistent these past few days. Somewhere around the 13th of this month, about a week from today, we expect our blocking ridge of high pressure to move south and west. That will open a storm door and at least for now, it looks like the storms are going to come right in!

As with most pattern changes, the storms will start fairly weak and become progressively much stronger. Remember the days when the week of Christmas brought powerful storms into the Tahoe area. Well if things hold together, we are going to have a very stormy several weeks leading up to Christmas.

Here is a look at the forecast for the morning of Monday December 14th:

This is the weakest storm in the bunch, but notice how the ridge of high pressure is getting pushed south and west! That is very good news.

A very large storm is brewing in the Gulf of Alaska. It begins to further flatten the ridge which opens the storm door even further, more very good news.

As this very powerful storm pushes east it will drop south and begin to have a major impact on our weather. Here is the forecast for Wednesday December 16th in the afternoon:

As the storm pushes right through our area it will bring copious amounts of precip. However, notice our ridge making a comeback. That is not all bad news as this time of year our storms can be very powerful. In a La Nina year Ma Nature can spin up storms with hurricane power so that ridge may not be able set up again for some time.

Here is the precip forecast for the next 15 days:

Cross your fingers as all of Tahoe is in the 6-12 inches of liquid precip. 

I was up the mountain today and we can really use the snow. Think positive Tahoe! Continue to be overly nice to your fellow human beings, as that sort of positive energy will always work for the better.

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