This is just the beginning!...

Storms 1 & 2, though not very impressive, did manage to break open the storm door and freshen up the slopes. Storm 2 is just winding down this morning and all snow showers should end by this afternoon. Band of snow set up along South Lake Tahoe overnight so they saw a few more inches than North Lake. As of 6 a.m. this morning Northstar had 6” so far from the 2 storms, and Sierra at Tahoe had 9” and it was still snowing. Looking at storm totals from around Tahoe most areas received 6-12 inches from the two storms combined.

A brief break in the action tonight and then another, fast moving & colder, storm will move in Sunday afternoon. This storm is bigger and coming in off the ocean, but the speed of it will limit big snow accumulations. Current models suggest .5-.75 inches of liquid, which with the colder temps and higher snow-water ratios should mean another 6-12 inches of snow falls. Snow showers will linger into Monday which could keep amounts piling a little higher.

A brief break for Tuesday and then another storm comes down the coast for Wed/Thurs, & another for Friday. How much over water these storms track would affect how much snow we get but current model thinking is around 1-1.5 feet Wed.-Fri. I am thinking we can get an additional 2+ feet for everyone by President’s weekend. The only day it shouldn’t snow is Tuesday.

Looking further out, a couple more storms are possible over President’s weekend and more into the following week. I think that the storm track is more over water Starting next weekend as the ridge backs up out in the Pacific. This should make the storms bigger for the last two weeks of Feb.

I will be posting tonight on the long range outlook, as is usual on Saturdays, after Ed Berry’s discussion posts. The long-range European model that goes into March was also just released, so I will be talking about the next couple of months. To give you a glimpse it looks as though precip amounts should be at or above normal into April. BA