Tuesday (1/19) Afternoon's Storm
In our continuing series we will talk about a single storm at a time. Right now there are at least a half dozen storms stacked up and ready to blast Tahoe. In today's installment, I will talk about Tuesday's storm. Before I do, Sunday/Monday's storm, appears to have actually gained strength.
Tuesday's storm does appear to be the weakest in our series, at least for now. The really heavy stuff will start coming in late Tuesday afternoon. It should snow heavily in the mountains for around 12 hours. After that, we may get a short reprieve before another large storm comes in on Wednesday. Here is a look at Tuesday afternoon:
This storm will actually split with half the energy moving into Southern California. The other half will pummel Tahoe.
Here is a very interesting graphic. This is the total precipitation for the first two storms in our series. Notice the little white specs. Those are areas of 5-10 inches of liquid precip. There are very many places in the Sierra that by early Wednsday morning, could see over 100 inches of snow:
Tuesday's storm does appear to be the weakest in our series, at least for now. The really heavy stuff will start coming in late Tuesday afternoon. It should snow heavily in the mountains for around 12 hours. After that, we may get a short reprieve before another large storm comes in on Wednesday. Here is a look at Tuesday afternoon:
Here is a very interesting graphic. This is the total precipitation for the first two storms in our series. Notice the little white specs. Those are areas of 5-10 inches of liquid precip. There are very many places in the Sierra that by early Wednsday morning, could see over 100 inches of snow:
You may ask, when is the best time to go out and ride all this powder? Excellent question. As of now my best guess is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. These storms are hitting in the overnight hours for the most part, that leaves the first runs of the day to be in the clear ... maybe. Clear is now a relative term. It means that I can see my hand in front of my face.
How about the valley. If you live at 5,500 feet or above, it looks like this could be a pretty major snow event. There will be some snow down at the valley floor, but I am guessing it will be mostly rain. In Arrow Creek or Galena or any foothill area, expect heavy snow. I will refine these elevations as we get closer to the events.
Stay tuned for the next installment, Wednesday and Thursday's storm.