We are starting out Saturday morning with some fog. There's a lot of moisture in the snow on the ground from the storms this week. After a week of winter weather, we are headed into a week of spring-like weather.

For the weekend we will see sunny skies, lighter winds, and warming temperatures as high pressure builds in over CA.

It's a beautiful morning over the lake as we can see from Homewood ski area this morning.

There are many ski areas with untouched fresh snow sitting on the trails as we only have 3 left open in the Tahoe region this week, and starting Monday we are down to just Palisades & Kirkwood. 

Highs into the 40s Saturday to near 50 degrees at lake level. Then 50s for highs at lake level Monday and 40s for the upper mountains.

Tuesday - Friday:

We will see some troughs move through the area over the next few weeks. Each could bring some clouds, gusty winds, and maybe some precipitation. The next one moves through Tuesday.

We could see southwest winds gusting up to 70+ mph over the ridgetops, which could affect some upper mountain lifts Tuesday. We could also see some clouds. A system will be moving through to our north. Most of the precip looks to stay north but a stray shower north of the lake is possible.

We should transition back to lighter winds and mostly sunny skies Wed-Fri. Another trough moving through Friday looks dry, but it could cool us a few degrees.

It looks like weak high pressure could build back in next weekend (30th-1st) with a better chance for a quieter pattern.

Fantasy Range:

Going through the first week of May we could see additional troughs swing through.

The latest European model run suggests a decent-looking storm dips into CA around the 2nd-3rd...

...and the GFS model suggests a decent storm around the 6th-7th.

The last time I remember a good snowstorm on my birthday (5/7) was back in 2011. We'll continue to watch the trends for the 1st week of May to see if we could see a storm or two. It would be interesting to see more measurable snow fall in May to add to Palisade's season total. They will be the only mountain open after the 1st, and then Mammoth as well in the central Sierra.

The ensemble mean models do show precipitation for the northern Sierra over the next 2 weeks, mainly during the 1st week of May.

Until we have an impending storm within the 5-day window, I'll likely be cutting back to posting every other day or so as we go into a quieter pattern this week. I'll have the April and updated season precip & snowfall stats out for you the first week of May.

Stay tuned...BA

P.S. Our local search and rescue team, "Tahoe Nordic Search & Rescue", is one of 4 finalists for the Rocky Talkie Search & Rescue Awards. If you want to support the local team you can vote for them to win at the link below.

2021 Search & Rescue Award - Rocky Talkie

Ski Area Latest Reported Closing Dates:

Always check for the latest updates on each ski resort's own website in case of changing dates.