Tahoe Daily Snow

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By Bryan Allegretto, Forecaster Posted 6 years ago March 25, 2018

Out Like a Lamb...

Summary

Sun, clouds, and maybe some afternoon snow showers today (Sunday). Highs in the 20's on the mountains and 30's at lake level. Ridge top wind gusts up to 30 mph. Monday through next weekend high pressure builds in with lots of sun and a warming trend. On the mountains we have highs in the 30's Monday, 40's Tuesday, and then 50's Wednesday through the weekend. At lake level 40's Monday, 50's Tuesday through Thursday, and then 60's for next weekend. There are signs that a pattern change the week of the 2nd could bring some cooler air to start the week, and then maybe a storm or two the 5th-9th of April.

Short Term Forecast

The snow showers really fired up yesterday afternoon with some solid bands sitting over the area, especially NW of the lake along the crest.  That brought more snowfall than expected for some mountains during the day.  Last night as the low rotated inland we saw less snow than expected as the snow showers fell apart as they reached the NW corner of the basin.

radar

Still, for the past 24 hours we beat the updated 24 hour forecast of 3-9 inches at some ski resorts.

reports

March totals are impressive with 12-19 feet falling on the upper mountains!  For this storm I will wait until tomorrow to look at the final totals as we could see a little snow today.  But we are at 1.5 - 4 feet so far on an original forecast 5 days ago for 2-5 feet.  I think we are ok with coming in a little under after being about 2 feet over forecast the last 2 big storms.

Today we have sun this morning and the winds have finally dropped with ridge gusts to only 30 mph.  That will create a zoo at most ski resorts today.  The daytime heating from the sun over the cold air mass in place should fire up snow showers again this afternoon, but expecting them to be much more scattered with maybe an inch or two on some mountains.  It is still cold today in the 20's on the upper mountains.

The rest of the week ahead into next weekend March leaves like a Lamb after roaring in like a Lion.  High pressure builds near the West Coast with a quick warming trend through the week.  By next weekend it's in the 50's on the mountains and 60's at lake level.  It will definitely fell like Spring for Easter weekend.

ridge

Luckily there is plenty of snow now on the mountains for Spring skiing into April.

Extended Forecast

Going into the week of the 2nd it still looks like the ridge will retrograde out towards the Aleutian Islands and the trough will drop into the Western U.S.  That should bring in some cooler air for us to start that week.

trough

As we go towards the 5th - 9th of April there are signs we could see a couple storms move in bringing some April snow.  There is a chance that and atmospheric river sets up again as the jetstream cuts under the ridge and into the West Coast.  Right now it looks like it could hit to our North in the Pacific NW which is normal in the Fall and Spring.  We will watch closely though.

Although there will be a break over the next week in the active weather, we may still have snow to forecast through April.  I will have lots of stats for March coming out as we end the month as well.  I reached out to the ski resorts yesterday and below is a list of projected closing dates.  They are subject to being extended, or shortened in Squaw's case, depending on the conditions as we go through April. 

closings

Will we get a final powder day or two?

Stay tuned...BA

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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