Historic Dry Period to end Next Week in Tahoe

This has been the slowest start to winter in the Northern Sierra in the last 40 years. That makes it historic. However, Ma Nature does not deliver precipitation in evenly spaced events. Instead, she messes with us. Just when we are thinking the ski season is lost .... BOOM ... she delivers historic storms! Or so it seems.

The good news is that this historically slow start to winter is about to come an abrupt end. The pattern will begin to change mid-week, around the 17th. We are going to get a series of storms that will be progressively larger than the previous ... just like old times!

Here is a synopsis:

Wednesday December 17th

This is a weak storm but it is just the beginning. We have a couple of strong storms, especially to the North that will take that ridge of high pressure and move it South.

Friday December 19th

This is a much stronger storm with a great moisture connection to the subtropical Pacific. What we really like about this ensemble is that it is going to stall and bring moisture to Tahoe for several days.

Sunday December 21st

Same storm with an even better moisture connection, what the NWS calls an atmospheric river. Also these storms have some cool air to work with.

Wednesday December 24th

Enter another storm that comes in from the Southwest. This is going to pull a ton of moisture into all of California especially the Central and Northern Sierra. This is a very warm storm and will be a bit tricky to predict snow levels. We are very confident that this will be all snow for Carson Range and Mt. Rose in particular.

Christmas Day

Snowing now for nearly a week straight in the Sierra. Much of it will be blizzard condition. Travel will be hazardous around the holiday to say the least. Notice the Low Pressure system to the Southwest. Guess where that is going?

Friday December 26th

If you guessed North and East you are correct. That is going to combine with a very large and cold storm to the north and produce a major precipitation event for the Sierra, especially around Lake Tahoe.

We will stop here, but conditions are ripe for this pattern to continue through the New Year. Here is what we are looking for precipitation from the 17th - 26th:

We are looking at 8-12 inches of liquid precip which will translate into 6-10 feet of snow above 7,000 feet for the Carson Range. That should open some terrain!

As the event nears and the during the event we will post with what's next and snow levels.

Stay Tuned ...