Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Wed. A.M. Storm Update.......

Will have to bump everyone's snow totals up about a foot! Storm for today is getting more favorable dynamics and is already producing snow this morning. Will most likely have 6 inches in town by tonight and up to a foot on the mountain as a band of heavier snow will form along I-80. Cold front will slowly move thru overnight with the heaviest snow just after midnight in the Tahoe area. Strong winds ahead of the front tonight will cause blizzard conditions. Another foot should fall overnight and up to two feet on top of the mountain. Snow showers lasting thru Christmas day could drop another 6 inches in town and another foot on the mountain. Total liquid on this mornings models is up to 1.75-2 inches in the Tahoe area which would equal about 25-30 inches at lake level and 35-40 inches above 7000 ft. So by Christmas night as the storm moves away my thinking right now is around 2 feet in Truckee, 3 feet at the bottom of the mountain and up to 4 feet at the top. Highest peaks along the Crest could receive as much as 5 feet of snow with snowfall rates tonight over Donner Summit of 3-4 inches per hour. Reno should even ring in this time with 4-8 inches of snow. Snow showers Thurs night into Friday will have very high snow ratios and models are hinting at a wave moving thru similar to Monday nights wave which could produce several additional inches of fluffy powder on top of the storm totals.

Will update tonight and tomorrow. Be safe, Merry Christmas. BA

2 comments:

Global Voyager said...

Hey Bryan,
Merry Christmas. I had a quick question you may be able to answer. How come so much of the mountain is still closed despite the 100+ inches (nice call btw) they already have received? Any chance of this terrain opening soon?
Thanks,
Sam

BA said...

Well I don't work on the mountain with the people who make those decisions but I have a few ideas. There have only been 60 inches at mid mtn. and most trails run the length of the mtn. There also has been very little moisture content to the snow so far. It has been very dry fluffy snow. 3 feet at 20-1 snow ratios can compact to six inches when ridden on. A lot of the mtn. has logs and rocks that stick up several feet, so they would have to be covered to make it safe. This time last year we had only had 50 inches and I remember riding the first week of Jan. and hitting rocks on the trails, so we are way ahead of last year. 75% of the mtn. is open. 64 of 89 trails. Remember less than 2 weeks ago it was 64 degrees at the top of the mtn. and all dirt. If I had to bet I would say the rest of the mtn. should be safe to open after we get 2-3 feet over Christmas.