A Message From Our CEO:

To fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus, California ski areas are closed. Some mountains have announced that this closure will continue through the end of the season. This is really important and should help the situation work out much better than a worst-case scenario. Here is the announcement from Vail Resorts: https://www.snow.com/info/Vail-Resorts-COVID-19-Resort-Closing-Update

For chasing powder, we have received requests from first responders and community leaders to communicate that they do not want people coming from out of town and definitely don’t want to deal with potential snow-related injuries when their focus should be on COVID-19. The Town of Truckee has asked that people Not visit Truckee right now: https://www.facebook.com/VisitTruckee/. Locals, please be extra responsible and cautious when enjoying the outdoors so that you’re safe and do not cause a burden to healthcare workers.

For the individual mountain Daily Snows that we usually write for Squaw & Mammoth, we are going to stop writing those based on requests from some communities that do not want to draw attention and crowds based on writing about incoming storms. We will continue to write both the Tahoe Daily Snow & I-80 Daily Snow. For other forecast locations outside of the ski areas, please check our other service OpenSummit.com and on our iPhone/Android apps.

For our snow-loving community and local mountain communities, we will get through this. In the meantime, please help and support those around you in need. Support employees & local businesses that are going to suffer from this if you aren't being affected yourself and can help.

Joel Gratz - Founding Meteorologist & CEO of OpenSnow/OpenSummit

The Forecast:

We saw snow showers develop again Wednesday afternoon as expected. Looking at the mountain sensors it looks like around a coating up to a couple of inches fell on the mountains on the west side of the lake along the crest. Farther south 4 inches being reported near Bear Valley & 10 inches near Mammoth.

Overnight the showers dissipated. This morning we have cold air in place with a very light east wind. Temperatures are in the teens. There is a band of snow that has developed right over the lake that may drift to the west side of the lake this morning with some light snow near Homewood.

Thursday:

Low pressure is still over the area today with snow showers expected to increase again this afternoon, similar to Wednesday. We could see an additional coating up to a couple of inches on the mountains depending on where bands of snow showers setup. Here is a look at the total precipitation forecast for today on the WPC's blended model.

Highs continue to be cold under the low with temperatures in the 20s for the upper elevations and 30s at lake level. Light winds will continue throughout the day.

Friday:

For Friday we see a brief break between systems. We should see mostly sunny skies with highs in the 30s to near 40 at lake level. We could see slightly gusty winds for the ridgetops in the afternoon, gusting to 30+ mph from the southwest as the next system approaches.

Saturday - Sunday System:

We will get the southern end of a weak system for the weekend. That will bring increasing clouds into Saturday morning with snow showers possibly developing by late morning. With this system, we are only expecting scattered light snow showers Saturday into Sunday with light precipitation and snow totals.

The latest forecast model runs show a range of 2-3 tenths of an inch for the west side of the lake along the crest, and 1-2 tenths for the east side. That is very little for 2 days. The 100 model average is around 0.26 inches. Here is a look at the WPC model for total precipitation updated through Sunday evening when the system clears out.

Highs will be in the 30s and winds are expected to stay fairly light this weekend, especially for a storm. Snow levels may be higher than recent systems hovering between 5000 - 6000 ft. just below lake level. With the high sun angle during the day and temperatures above freezing at lake level, we shouldn't see much if any accumulations. The best chance will be a dusting to an inch Saturday night at lake level.

For the mountains, snow ratios may only average 12-13:1 with the snow a little thicker than recent systems. We could see 1-4 inches on the mountains Late morning Saturday through Sunday evening when the storm clears out. The best chance for a couple of inches looks to be on Sunday.

Monday - Tuesday:

We may see a drier pattern for Monday into Tuesday behind the weekend system as a weak area of high pressure builds in over CA. Mostly sunny skies expected and high temperatures may warm into the 40s for the upper elevations and 50's for lake level.

The models are at odds for the middle of next week. The European and Canadian models show a weak ridge over the West with the storm track to our north. The GFS model has trended back towards a deeper trough into CA by midweek.

That would allow the midweek system moving into the Pacific NW to dig farther south into northern CA.

That is still in the minority of solutions, but the European and Canadian models have been trending towards a flatter ridge. We saw this same trend for this weekend. A few days ago it looked like we may stay dry and then the models trended wetter with the weak system digging into northern CA for this upcoming weekend. So we will watch to see if the same thing happens for next week, or if we get a break for a week with some milder weather.

Fantasy Range:

The long-range models continue to show a large trough developing in the eastern Pacific the 2nd week of April.

That could open the door to a more active pattern again the 2nd week fo April. Some long-range models show several systems with the possibility of a wetter system that week. So we will continue to watch the pattern for the 2nd week of April to see if we could get a late-season storm of two that could bring additional snowfall to the mountains.

Stay tuned...BA

P.S. I hope everyone is hanging in there. We are all in this together and brighter days are ahead. When this is done I think I'll be spending twice as much time outdoors...

Community Relief Efforts!

In an effort to help support COVID-19 relief efforts, we have created a resource for local foundations that are deploying funds to the most vulnerable members of our communities.
 
https://opensnow.com/news/post/help-support-covid-19-relief-efforts