Well, we did it. We got a fresh snow day before most of the ski resorts are closed on the 18th! We talked about hit or miss snow showers for Tuesday into Wednesday and we saw some hits Tuesday evening...

I had a large snowfall forecast range to account for the isolated nature of heavier snowfall bands that we expected. Snow showers moved in during the afternoon and snow levels fell below lake level during the evening. Heavy bands of snow hit north and east of the lake, and a few spots south of the lake, with lighter snow for most locations.

Snowfall Reports:

The mountains on the west side of the lake are reporting 2-3 inches of new snow. North of the lake Northstar picked up 7-8 inches, southeast of the lake Heavenly picked up 5 inches, and northeast of the lake Mt. Rose picked up 10-12 inches of snow, and it piled up quickly!

Here are the 24 hours reports including the base reports which weren't much less than the upper mountain reports. The lowest April snowfall of the last 50+ years at the Central Sierra Snow Lab is 2 inches. They picked up 2.4" so we escaped having the lowest snowfall record for April!

We saw some impressive amounts at lake level as well. I have reader reports of anywhere from 1" in South Lake, 2-3" on the west shore, up to 6" in Meyers & Truckee, and up to 8" on the east shore of the lake!

Here is a look at the forecaster report card comparing the final forecast from Tuesday morning to the snowfall so far. Two mountains already have over the high-end of the forecast. The rest are within the range, although to be fair it was a wider than normal range this time with the nature of this system.

Some people around town who don't "stay tuned" were on social media posting about the "surprise" snow, lol. That is typical this time of year as people stop paying attention to the weather as they switch to spring activities. But the rest of us die-hards are happy for a few more fresh track days this season!

Wednesday Forecast:

We could add to the storm totals today. Low pressure will continue to spin over the Great Basin to our east. The one nice thing is that the winds are lighter, but it's colder. Highs in the 30s on the upper mountains and 40s for lake level. 

We have some snow showers still falling south of the lake this morning. The showers should increase again Wednesday afternoon into the evening as the heating of the day causes convective showers to pop up over the northern Sierra. Here is a look at our forecast radar for today.

We will see breaks of sun between and before showers today. Snow levels this afternoon and evening are around 7000+ ft. on the models, but heavier cells could drag snow levels lower again. This time the models are favoring areas south and west of the lake for the heaviest showers instead of north and east.

We could see another coating up to a few inches of snow on the mountains through this evening. That should keep most mountains within the forecast range for this 2-day storm. We will watch to see if any heavier bands bring lower than expected snow levels or more snow than expected again. Final tallies Thursday morning.

Thursday - Weekend:

High pressure builds in over CA starting Thursday through the weekend, and into early next week. Expecting sunny skies and warming temperatures. We start out with highs in the 40s on the mountains and 50s at lake level Thursday into Friday, and then warming to 50s and 60s over the weekend.

We are still watching for a system to possibly bring enough moisture for afternoon showers again next Wed-Thu. Outside of that, it looks to be fairly dry through the end of next week.

Fantasy Range:

The active phase of the MJO is maintaining its strength in the West Pacific and forecast to move through the eastern Pacific for I think the 1st time this season this strong. It's a little late for a strong response with a weaker jet that has been shifting north as we move through spring.

But we may see enough of a response in the atmosphere to get a few stronger systems (by late April standards) to form and push into CA during the last week of April. The latest model runs continue to show this.

The long-range ensemble mean models continue to show increasing precipitation for CA during the last week of April...

It's not for sure, but the MJO may give the long-range forecast more credibility this time. We'll see... We will be down to just Mammoth and Squaw/Alpine being open during the last week of the month. Could we see a few more fresh snow mornings this season?

Stay tuned...BA

Ski Resort Closing Dates: 

Boreal - 4/18

Sugar Bowl - 4/18

Northstar - 4/18

Mt. Rose - 4/18

Diamond Peak - 4/18

Heavenly  - 4/18

Bear Valley - 4/18

Squaw/Alpine - 5/31 (tentative)

Mammoth - 5/31 (tentative)

Mt. Shasta - CLOSED

Tahoe Donner - CLOSED

Homewood - CLOSED

Sierra at Tahoe - CLOSED

Kirkwood - CLOSED

Dodge Ridge - CLOSED

June Mountain - CLOSED

China Peak - CLOSED