Tahoe Weather Blog

If you read the last post, we are now approaching what we termed a decent storm. Here are the details: Approaching storm will mean above average temps tomorrow as storm's counter clockwise rotation brings in sub-tropical air. Thursday starts out warm, but as storm approaches, temperatures begin to drop and winds begin to increase, especially Thursday afternoon. Very early Friday approaching storm reaches Sierra and has a very adequate moisture tap. Moisture should be moderate to heavy through Saturday as this storm is moving much slower than the last series of storms. Storm could produce as much as 10 inches of liquid precip at the Sierra Crest South around Mammoth and up to 5 inches in the Carson Range. That classifies this as a very strong spring storm. Here is a look at the GFS forecast for late Friday night as the storm peaks around then: Here is a look at the total precip. Some areas of the Central Sierra could pick up 10+ inches of liquid precip, which would

We have a few fast moving, moisture starved storms heading our way. The first hits very early Thursday morning. It would classify it as a slider, but it is dropping in straight from the north. To our west High Pressure is dominating and blocking any reasonable moisture tap for this storm. The next storm comes in very late on Sunday night and follows a similar pattern: This one is trying to weasel a bit more moisture around the blocking ridge of high pressure. I see at best just a few inches of snow above 6,500 feet for both of these storms in the Carson Range and about the same or slightly more in the Sierra. As the ridge of high pressure begins to break down, we are tracking what might be a bit more of a winter event which should begin to approach our area about a week from tomorrow. If this storm decides to slow down and take its time, unlike the last several storms, we could be measuring precip in feet rather than inches: It is still way too early to make the call,

The first in a series of the 3 storms is just about past us. We will have a very short reprieve until the next storm arrives. That storm is scheduled to show up late Friday afternoon. It is a quick moving storm and will be out of here in less than 24 hours. Then we will have another short reprieve ahead of a slightly bigger storm scheduled to come in very early on Monday morning. Again, this storm will not stick around for long and will be long gone within 24 hours. Here is a look at the forecast for Friday @ noon, just ahead of the storm: Pretty impressive as it makes its way inland. However, the storm will break-up somewhat. It is also moving pretty fast. Snow levels appear to be around 6,500 -7,000 feet for this event. The next storm begins to move in very late Sunday night: This appears to be a slightly colder storm with snow levels forecast to be around 6,500 feet. It too is moving fast and will not hold together well as it makes its way to Tahoe. After this stor

A series of moderate storms are headed our way. The first is knocking on the door. It is going to take about 24 hours for this storm to get organized, then it will tap into some moisture and begin what should be a fairly stormy week. The synopsis is: Storm Monday through Tuesday, break Wednesday through Thursday, then another storm for Friday into Saturday. Here is the first of the storms as it gets cranking around noon on Tuesday: Again, we see some shadowing for the Sierra and we are right on the edge of the cold and warm air. I believe this will be all snow above 7,500 feet. After a break for Wednesday and most of Thursday, the next storm arrives late Thursday night. Here is a look at the forecast as the storm approaches Thursday afternoon: This storm is packing cool air and tapping into very warm sub-tropical air which is always challenging to forecast snow levels. As we get closer we can pinpoint where the rain snow line will occur. Right now my guess is around 8,000

You do not need me to tell you that we have a very strong ridge of high pressure setup right off the coast of California and it is bringing us very warm and sunny weather ... for now. We are starting to see signs of another wet pattern forming and effecting the Tahoe area starting about a week from today (3/20). The storm track is from the south and everything is going right around our ridge of high pressure. However, as that breaks down that storm track is going to go straight through Tahoe. Seeing how we will be in late March when the storms arrive, do not expect anything like what we saw in January. Having said that, our weather pattern will change, moisture will come our way and temperatures will drop. The storms will come in fairly dry on Monday, but by Tuesday at noon we are looking at this: These storms should continue to hit our area for 3-5 days (maybe more, too far out to call). However, I see some shadowing, which is often the case this time of year, so the Carson R

A very cold and fast moving system will drop out of the north and dump snow in the Sierra and leeward valleys of Nevada. This system will bring much cooler air and very strong winds. I expect about 36 hour period of light to moderate snowfall to fall on the Sierra and Carson Range. At the peak of the storm which will be Sunday morning here is a look: This is nothing like what we say in January and February. However, with the much cooler temps I do expect a hefty dumping of much lighter snow than we saw in those storms. Here is a look at the precip forecast: I think we could be talking about 18-36 inches by Monday for Mt. Rose, heavier amounts on the west side of the lake. This storm will quickly clear out and temps will rise into the 50's under high pressure by weeks end. Stay Tuned ...

This is a quick update to the forecast. This next storm's trajectory is now almost straight out of the north. That completely cuts off the moisture tap we have seen for the past couple of months. We no longer see any type of major precip event. In fact, we are now forecast 3-6 inches of snow for the Carson range Sunday night into early Monday morning. However, expect strong winds on Sunday ahead of the front and much colder air starting Monday, with a return to average temps by Thursday. Looking ahead, we see no major weather events for the next 10 days. Stay Tuned ...