Snowfall Reports:

The cold, windy, and snowy weather continued the past 24 hours.  We were expecting another 1-2 feet and the ski resorts are reporting another 15-30 inches the past 24 hours.  It's a cold, windy, & snowy morning as the ski resorts continue to dig out.

(Boreal 2/16/19 6:45 a.m.)

The snowfall amounts are getting quite impressive.  Not just for the storm that has dropped 4-6+ feet the past 4 days, but for the month of February with several ski resorts breaking 200" already.  That's a February record for some and it's only the 16th!

As a whole, we are currently sitting at 157% of average for the date, and 94% of the total seasonal average!  You can see several ski resorts are running ahead of the big 2016-17 season currently.

The Cold & Snow Continue:

The next wave is moving through northern CA today.  That will continue snow showers through the day with another 3-9 inches of snow possible during the day today.

That is lighter snow than we have seen the last 2 days.  The snow will increase and decrease in intensity as bands of precip form and move through today.  The winds this morning are gusting to 70+ mph on the ridge tops.  That could close some upper mountain lifts this morning.  The winds are expected to gust up to 60+ mph today before coming down tonight.

Lighter and more scattered snow showers are expected tonight into Sunday.  A final weak wave Sunday should keep scattered snow showers around through the day before we start to clear out Sunday night.  We could see another 1-2 inches of snow overnight, and 2-5 inches Sunday before we end the storm.

The latest forecast model runs show 0.7-1.1 inches of total precipitation possible from 4 a.m. this morning through Sunday afternoon along the crest.  

Here is the updated forecast for total additional snowfall possible through Sunday, on top of the 4-6+ feet we've seen so far with this storm.

Cold Week Ahead, More Snow Possible:

Monday into Tuesday we should see some sun, with light winds and highs only the 20's.  That should keep the snow nice and soft and will bring nice travel weather for those driving home Monday.

The next cold system drops down from the north Wednesday into Thursday.  This time the storm looks like it could drop down over land instead of off the coast.  That would mean it would draw in less moisture with only light snow showers.

We will have to keep watching this system just in case it does track closer to the ocean.  But it has looked like a drier system on most model runs this week.  Temperatures stay cold so snow ratios are still high with this storm.  That means we will squeeze out as much powdery snow as possible from even though it doesn't have much moisture to work with.  Here is the initial forecast for this system.

Then we should have another dry and cold day next Friday.

Next weekend the cold trough is still expected to be over the West.  That will continue the below average temperatures.

The forecast models are continuing to trend towards keeping the next system dropping down from the north from reaching CA.  So we may stay dry next weekend.  We will have to keep watching the trend for the next few days.

Then we have been talking about high pressure possibly building in over the West Coast the week of the 25th, bringing at least a brief drier period.

The cold negative PNA pattern we have been seeing the last few weeks is forecast to trend towards positive the week of the 25th.  That lines up with the potential pattern change to a West Coast ridge being shown by the models.

The CFSv2 climate model shows below average precipitation chances that week as well.

There were a couple wetter runs on the models yesterday.  But they may be trying to figure out how a possible typhoon forming in the Western Pacific could interact with the pattern.  Overall, the trend has been towards a drier pattern the last week of the month over the past week.  So we will just have to keep watching.

My thinking has been that if the MJO continues to move east into the Indian Ocean in the long-range we could transition back into a stormier pattern later in the first week of March.  The latest fantasy range model runs show possible storms starting back in around the 3rd.  The CFSv2 also shows a possible stormier pattern starting around then as well.

This is all fantasy range speculation beyond 10 days.  But always fun to play with.  

Stay tuned...BA

P.S.  Between storms I had a chance to check out Homewood's cat skiing operation.  If you've ever wondered what the experience is like, or never knew it even existed, here's an article I wrote about my day.

https://opensnow.com/news/post/trip-report-homewood-snowcat-adventures-lake-tahoe

If you are traveling through the Sierra please use the links below for travel advisories as we do not give our opinions for the "safest" travel times for liability reasons.  You can also follow our I-80 Daily Snow forecast as well.

NWS Reno: https://www.weather.gov/rev/
NWS Sacramento: https://www.weather.gov/sto/
CA road conditions: http://www.dot.ca.gov/cgi-b... (and 1-800-427-7623)
NV road conditions: https://nvroads.com/
OSS weather share: http://oss.weathershare.org/#