Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tuesday Evening......

Haven't gotten much riding in the past 10 days after a little run-in with a tree on that amazing powder morning on Valentine's Day. But from what I've heard today from a few people is that the resorts are pretty buried up high & the conditions are pretty good. That would make sense since in the past 3 weeks over 9.5 feet has fallen on top of Northstar, & 10 - 12+ feet on areas along the crest. Today was a bluebird day with some nice temps.

Storm for tomorrow night continues the trend of taking more of an over land path & heading inland over Oregon, which means a drier scenario for us. Looks like most of the snow will fall during the day Thursday with snow levels hovering around lake level since the cold air with the storm won't be heading as far South. Models have thus cut-back on snow totals showing closer to 3-6 inches, possibly more up along the crest. Hopefully this is one of the storms where we get more than anticipated.

On Friday a low sets up out in the Pacific, similar to the same position as this past weekends storm, then takes a similar path NE towards Washington over this weekend. Latest models showing almost the same set-up as last weekend with the subtropical moisture stream heading up just off the coast on Saturday. Looks like a break in precip. Fri. & Sat.

Good news is that a colder storm will be coming down from Alaska and possibly meeting up with the moisture just as it is coming onshore Sunday. Snow levels would start out around 6500 ft. & then fall thru the day Sunday as the cold air associated with the colder storm filters in. Snow may lighten up Monday & then another cold storm could bring heavier snow Tuesday, with snow lasting into Wed. Another cold storm could be on it's heels for Thursday but doesn't look as strong. Currently models are showing several inches of liquid possible Sun.- Wed., and with the lower snow levels that could me several feet of snow. This 4 day period will be the focus the next few days, as it could be something to get excited about.

Long Range models continue to hint at the ridge continuing to progress East across the Pacific and possibly ending up near the West Coast around the second week of March. This would be a chance at a little break in the storm activity before the ridge re-emerges back out in the Central Pacific, but that is pretty far off. BA

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So are you expecting the ridge to set up along the coast for an extended period of time in March? Just curious bc I'll be in Tahoe March 18-21 and am hoping we can get some snow.

kelpking said...

bluebird day at sierra today for sure...top half off grandview stayed nice throughout the day and was pretty damn fresh first thing this morning. In the trees i had about 50 lbs of snow fall and literally knocked my ass to the ground. was waiting for the big one like that..so beware!! thanks BA

Anonymous said...

Hi Bryan,

My son and I plan to go Lake Tahoe sometime soon. We are not sure what would be the best weekend. Would this weekend, or the weekend after next weekend be the best weather? I know you can't make far off predictions, but if you could help us, that would be great.

Thank You

BA said...

No extension is expected. Any set-up of the ridge near the coast should be short-lived as the global pattern points towards a ridge in the Central Pacific thru March. The only thing I see is the possibility of a cold trough in the East which could briefly slow the progression of storms for a few days like we saw last week, sometime around mid-month. that is far away thoug.

I would think next weekend would be better after we get some more cold storms. this weekend you run the risk of some wet snow or mix at the bottom on Sunday.