Tahoe Daily Snow

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By Bryan Allegretto, Forecaster Posted 7 years ago March 21, 2017

Wet/White Week...

Summary

Cloudy with rain and snow showers today. Snow levels sitting near to just above 7000 feet before falling tonight to lake level. We could see several inches of snow on the mountains above 7000 feet. Winds will be gusting to 65 mph on the mountain tops. Highs in the 30's on the mountains to low 40's at lake level. Wednesday a weak wave moving through could bring a dusting of snow to lake level, and an inch or two to the mountains. Highs again remain in the 30's on the mountains to near 40 at lake level. Winds still gusting to 45 mph up high. We should see a break Thursday with clouds and sun and highs remaining cool. The winds should come down a bit from Wednesday. Friday into Saturday another weak storm moves in. Snow levels look to hover around 6500-7000 feet on Friday before falling below lake level Friday night. We could see several more inches of snow on the mountains by Saturday afternoon, with a coating to an inch or two at lake level. It looks like another break is possible Sunday with cool air in place. Then a colder but weaker system could move through for Sunday night. That could bring a light accumulation of snow to the mountains. Next Tuesday we may see the ridge of high pressure build near the West Coast bringing drier and warmer weather for midweek. We may see another storm move in towards the end of next week.

Short Term Forecast

Snow levels over night were around 7500-8000 feet and then it was snowing down to near 7000 feet this morning on Donner Summit with about an inch of accumulation as of 6 a.m.

We are getting reports from the mountains of around an inch at 7000 feet with 2-4 inches overnight above 8000 feet.

The rain and snow showers will continue today with snow levels most likely hovering in the 7000-7500 foot range.  Maybe lowering briefly during heavier showers.  Colder air moves in tonight after most of the moisture begins to move out.  We could see several more inches of snow today.  No change to the total forecast from yesterday.  We can tally up the total tomorrow morning.

Still expecting a colder and weaker wave to move through tomorrow with an inch or two for the mountains.  The winds will be gusting pretty strong today and tomorrow.  Refer to the Summary for speeds.  The temperatures don't look to change much through the week with 30's on the mountains and low 40's for lake level.

We should have a stretch of drier weather Thursday and then another storm for Friday.  This storm has a decent moisture tap, but continue the trend of splitting on the model runs.  That will keep most of the heavy precip from pushing into the Tahoe area.  The snowfall forecast for this morning has come down quiet a bit.  Snow levels look to start and sit around 7000 feet on Friday and then come down Friday night.

Expecting most of the moisture to move out by Saturday morning.  Here is the updated snowfall forecast for Friday into Saturday morning.

updated forecast

After a break Sunday, we may see a colder but weaker storm move through Sunday night with 1-3 inches of snow for the mountains and a coating at lake level. 

We are seeing typical Spring storms this week that are weak and splitting with a mix of rain and snow at lake level, and several inches of snow for the upper elevations.

Extended Forecast

Next week high pressure looks like it will build along the West Coast bringing milder and drier conditions for much of the week.  

By next Friday a storm may be able to push far enough South to bring some colder air and light snowfall.  We will continue to watch that.

The first week of April the long-range ensemble runs show the possibility of a weaker ridge near the coast, so a few storms may break through.  We will keep watching that as well.

Overall the strong Winter storms of the 16/17 season may be over.  For now the outlook for the next 2 weeks is active, but it brings several storms that bring inches of snow and not feet.

Stay tuned...BA

Announcements

Geography Key:

East

Mt. Rose, Heavenly, Diamond Peak

Central

Northstar

West

Tahoe Donner, Homewood, Bear Valley, Dodge Ridge

Crest

Boreal, Donner Ski Ranch, Sugar Bowl, Squaw, Alpine, Sierra, Kirkwood

*Boreal and Donner Ski Ranch are forecast with the "West" mountains in higher snow levels events.

About Our Forecaster

Bryan Allegretto

Forecaster

Bryan Allegretto has been writing insightful posts about snow storms for over the last 15 years and is known as Tahoe's go-to snow forecaster. BA grew up in south Jersey, surfing, snowboarding, and chasing down the storms creating the epic conditions for both.

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