Snowfall Report:
We were expecting 5-10 inches of snow on the upper mountain Monday and the official measurement Tuesday morning is 9 inches, so no surprises. We only saw an inch at the base due to snow levels rising up just above the base for a time on Monday.
Tuesday Snow Showers:
Most of the precipitation has shifted south into the central Sierra as of Tuesday morning. We will have mostly cloudy skies with highs in the 30s for Tuesday. We will see a few scattered snow showers over the mountain that could maybe accumulate to a dusting up to an inch of additional snowfall. Snow levels fluctuating between 6000-6500 ft.
Wednesday – Sunday:
The Thanksgiving holiday period looks good for traveling outside of any traffic. We will have mostly sunny skies each day. Highs only in the 30s Wednesday but then 40s for the lower elevations and 30s for the higher elevations through the weekend.
Overnight lows in the teens and then 20s which should allow snowmaking.
Long-Range Forecast:
The weather pattern is going to get very quiet storm-wise starting Wednesday and possibly through the 2nd week of December. Maybe but hopefully not longer…
A strong high-pressure ridge is forecast to anchor in over the West for the next two weeks with the troughing and cold shifting to the eastern U.S. That will bring a very dry pattern for the West as it blocks Pacific storms through the period.
Storms will try to move into the West Coast but should mostly get broken up and weaken before reaching the coast. If the ridge starts to weaken before mid-month a weakened system could try to sneak in, so we’ll keep an eye out for that.
The temperatures are expected to be milder as well, and we will likely see temperatures reach or break 50 degrees for the lower elevations near the base some days.
One of the issues with high-pressure overhead is that we will likely see nights with light winds and inversions will start, where we see warmer temperatures at the top of the mountains than at the bottom. That can make it too warm on the upper mountains to make snow if the inversions are strong enough.
We’ll continue to watch the long-range patterns for any signs of a big pattern change back to colder and stormier…
BA
