Tahoe Daily Snow

Heads up, there may be fresher snow! Read the latest Tahoe Daily Snow

By Bryan Allegretto, Forecaster Posted 7 years ago October 31, 2016

Snowy Halloween!

Recap:

The cold front arrived around 1:30 yesterday afternoon and brought heavy snow that lasted about 3 hours.  Then some post frontal snow showers kept going into the evening.  It was a quick storm that brought several inches of snow to the mountains, and a coating to a couple of inches at lake level.

Here is a shot I took of Truckee yesterday afternoon as the storm was winding down.

truckee

I was posting some live storm reports from Donner Summit on the Tahoe Weather Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds.  About 6 inches of snow fell up there.

It is always hard in October to get ski resort totals as they are not open yet and there is a slim staff.  So far this morning Sugar Bowl is reporting 6 inches at the bottom and 8 inches up top.

sb

Mt. Rose is also reporting 8 inches.  They are also blowing snow this morning.  They are trying to get open after they had to delay today's targeted opening day.

mt rose

Squaw Valley is reporting 7 inches up top.

squaw

Overall I think the snowfall amounts were close to the forecast, if not a little over on the East side with good spillover of the precip.  Here is the first keep me honest report of the season, as meager as it may be.

totals

A refresher that I put out the final forecast 24 hours before a storm arrives, and then the day after I compare the forecast to the actuals.

The Next Storm:

The weather this morning is chilly but beautiful.  The snow at lake level started melting right away with the warm ground and the sun coming up this morning, especially on the East side that saw less snow.  That is making for some pretty dramatic colors this morning like this shot from South Lake.

south lake

The clear skies will give way to clouds later today as another storm approaches.  This weak system will move through tonight with some light snow. 

The snow levels with this storm will be close to lake level.  With the lighter precip it may mix with some rain.  For the mountains we could see a fresh 1-3 inches of snow overnight.  You can see on the GFS forecast this morning the total precip forecast is pretty meager.

gfs

Here is the snowfall forecast.

forecast

The Rest of the Week:

Temperatures stay cold in the 40's Tuesday and Wednesday.  On the mountains overnight lows will be near or just below freezing so maybe a few nights of snow making.  

The problem will be that starting Thursday the inversions will start and the upper elevations will stay above freezing overnight into the weekend.  Highs at lake level will be in the 50's by Thursday into the weekend with plenty of sunshine.

Long-Range:

Despite the GFS trying to bring some light showers in on Sunday, the forecast has not changed for the first 2 weeks of November.  I am still expecting dry weather through mid-month as the ridge sits over the West.

Some storms will break through the ridge into the Pacific NW, and some will try to brush us.  But overall no big storms in the outlook the next 2 weeks.  Let's hope that changes.

Stay tuned...BA

About Our Forecaster

Bryan Allegretto

Forecaster

Bryan Allegretto has been writing insightful posts about snow storms for over the last 15 years and is known as Tahoe's go-to snow forecaster. BA grew up in south Jersey, surfing, snowboarding, and chasing down the storms creating the epic conditions for both.

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