Friday – Saturday:
Mostly sunny for both days along with lighter winds. Highs into the 30s up top and 40s for the base. Beautiful days for skiing.
Sunday – Monday Systems:
Snow showers are expected to move in Sunday morning and continue through Monday from weaker systems moving through. Highs into the 30s Sunday and dropping into the 20s on the upper mountain Monday. Ridgetop winds increasing from the southwest with gusts up to 40-50+ mph Sunday and 50-60+ mph Monday, which could affect a few upper mountain lifts.
The snow levels could be hovering near to just above the base Sunday with some rain mixing in. Then falling below the base Sunday night through Monday. We could see the snow showers end for a short time Monday night.
Here is the updated snowfall forecast for totals expected through Monday. Around 60% of the forecasted amounts could fall by early Monday morning.
- 4-9 inches at the base.
- 7-12 inches at mid-mountain elevations.
- 9-14 inches up top.
Tuesday – Wednesday Storm:
A stronger storm moves into southern CA Tuesday into Wednesday. The Tahoe basin will be on the northern edge. We could see a continuation of snow showers on both days, with lighter and more scattered showers for Wednesday. The winds will be lighter and turn to the south-southeast. Highs into the 20s up top and near freezing at the base.
With the southerly flow, the Tahoe basin typically gets shadowed from heavier precipitation, especially north of the lake. That is why we expect lighter amounts with this storm. Snow levels will be below the base and any snow that falls on the mountain should be fairly dry and fun to make some turns in.
Here is the initial forecast for snowfall totals expected from Tuesday through Wednesday night. Around 70% of the forecasted amounts could fall by early Wednesday morning.
- 4-9 inches at the base.
- 5-10 at mid-mountain elevations.
- 6-11 inches up top.
Long-Range:
We could see a brief break Thursday with partly sunny skies and highs into the 30s. Then we are watching another storm that could bring several inches of snow Thursday night into Friday the 24th. We’ll continue to watch the trends on that storm as we get closer.
The storm door is forecast to remain open through the last week of March, but we are into the spring pattern and stronger storms will be harder to come by. The trough will slowly shift east with time so any storms may drop down from the north over land which is a drier track. So we could see a few weak systems during the last week of the month.
We’ll continue to watch the trends to make sure no bigger storms show up. The long-range models suggest nice weather for the 1st week of April. We’ll continue to watch the trends on that as well. We are hoping for a nice weekend for the WinterWonderGrass Festival!
BA
