For the short-term there isn't much to talk about until next Friday.  The skiing has been great with lots of sun and mild temperatures.  There is plenty of snow on the mountains after a huge March snowfall.  Just need some wax on your skis or boards for the sticky snow.

I am in the middle of a tour around the lake of all the ski resorts.  I have been to 5 so far and plan on going to at least 12.  You can follow my tour with pictures and videos on the TahoeWeather Instagram page.

High pressure will stay over us into the beginning of next week.

Then that breaks down by the middle of next week.  We start seeing storms into the Pacific NW Wednesday into Thursday.  Then the jet stream lowers into CA by Friday.  The forecast models have been in good agreement in showing a large area of low pressure moving into the Northeast Pacific by Friday.  That taps warm moisture from Hawaii (pineapple express) and directs it at CA by next Friday.

We could see clouds and winds increase by Thursday.  Snow levels start around 8,000 feet Thursday and then rise Thursday night into Friday as the moisture pushes into the area.  The latest model runs show a rainy Friday next week, with snow levels up to 11,000 feet! 

It does look like colder air is going to move in Saturday.  The latest runs crash snow levels to lake level Saturday morning as the 2nd wave of moisture moves in.  I have several inches of snow in the forecast on the 10-day forecast on the resort pages.  

Overall this doesn't look like a huge precip producer yet. It looks like the atmospheric river moisture tap cuts off as it pushes South into CA on Friday.  So a quick hit of heavy precipe and as the first wave moves through and a second hit for Saturday.  The GFS has a high end of only 2 inches of liquid near the crest right now.  The European ensemble mean run below has only an average of 1.2 inches of liquid near the crest through next Saturday.

This storm has the potential to bring more precipitation if it slows down and keeps the long-moisture feed intact as it moves in.  There is a also the potential for several inches or more of snowfall on the mountains on Saturday if snow levels crash.  So we will be watching this storm closely all week.

The European model runs push the system East by Sunday.  The GFS drops a 3rd wave of precip in on Sunday with some more snow.

Going into the week of the 9th the ensemble mean runs keep a trough near the West Coast.

The latest GFS runs shows the potential for 1-2 colder storms dropping in from the Gulf of Alaska that week.

So for now we are not done with snow forecasting going into April, even though the ski resorts start closing next weekend through the end of April.  We may have a couple fresh snow days ahead before they close, between the 7th - 14th April.

There are no signs of a big ridge to stop storms from moving in in the long-range yet.  I keep forecasting even after the ski resorts close as long as there is the possibility of snow on the mountains.

Stay tuned...BA