Today seemed like a good day to start a thread like this for the season for those of us who live in or ski in the Tahoe area.

Here's Alpine Meadows this morning...

Anyone going to earn some early turns this week?

Heavenly today.  This is pretty impressive for the first week of October.

Not my picture.  But in general, they have to plow a lot of snow around at the base anyway otherwise it would be difficult for people to get up to the lift lines.   So yes, they are constantly digging that sign out and by March last season it had a sort of half dome around it.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tch 

JayT, what's with the sign?  If you only have less than a foot now, it looks like the sign will be under the snow by the time real winter comes.  Short uprights?  Or is this an illusion?

Check out Sugar Bowl - it looks like full on winter up there.

How'd he like those new Atomic AT bindings? (saw the pic he posted from the shop on Facebook)  Are those lighter than they look?

In other news, Northstar scheduled their tentative opening day on Friday, November 18th: http://www.northstarattahoe.com/info/calendar/calendarevent.open_for_skiing.item.asp?cmpid=ENS00046

I assume the same goes for Heavenly.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philpug 

Daron Rahlves just stopped in the shop on his way back from Sugar Bowl. He had some killer video with some good face shots.

Thread bump... and... looks like there won't be any more early season snow for at least 2 weeks.  But at least the trends are on track for another La Nina, so that's always good to hear.

http://tahoeweatherdiscussion.com/september-recap

We are getting a little rain today from the tail end of a weak storm hitting the Pacific NW. After that the ridge builds back in and it should be another 2 weeks of quiet weather. It’s a good time to take a look at the September numbers.

September was another dry month with the Tahoe Basin picking up only 35% of average precip and the Truckee River Basin picking up 52% of average. September completes the water year and for the whole year we did really well. The Tahoe Basin picked up 139% of average precip this year and the Truckee River Basin picked up 144% of avarage. Most of that is thanks to the huge amount of snowfall during the winter.

September was also a warm month at 1.7 degrees above average. It was the first month this year that we were above average for the month. The last time we were this warm for a month was back in October of 2008. We have only had 5 months above average since then. With the water warming just off the coast and the ridging in place this was not a surprise. We may have it happen again here in Ocbtober as it did 2 of the last 3 Ocobers preceding a La Nina winter.

The Euro model was showing a some precip for this upcoming weekend but i think that may be a fluke as the ridge should hold. The next shot at some precip should be around the 23rd-24th. The ridge in the Pacific is sitting far enough West out around 170-180w over the next 2 weeks that the trough is off the coast and a ridge will sit over the West. As we go towards the 23rd we may see the ridge sitting closer to 160w which will put the trough further east towards the West coast as a large storm moves into the Gulf of Alaska. We may get the cold front from the storm as it hits the Pacific NW.

That is 2 weeks away so stay tuned for updates and until then enjoy the nice fall weather…

Time to bump this thread back up.  We've got snow in the forecast...

http://tahoeweatherdiscussion.com/another-visit-from-winter

None of the storms have much moisture, but with this first one the air is so cold that we will get some help from the high snow:water ratios. Right now it looks like around .25-.5 inches of liquid but with temps dropping down to 20 degrees or lower Thursday night we could see 20:1 snow ratios or better. So that means 5-10 inches are possible above 8000 ft. where it’s coldest with probably 4-8 inches above 7000 ft. and 2-4 inches at lake level by Friday.

That starts up about a week of this cold and unsettled weather pattern. Another weak cold storm looks to drop in for Sunday and another around next Wed. and snow amounts look be even less with these storms. Throughout the period I would expect the resorts to be adding to the totals with snow making.

Time to bump this thread now that the resort season is about to begin.  Should be a nice start this weekend with some snow on the way.  I'll be at Northstar on Saturday if anyone is around...

http://tahoeweatherdiscussion.com/all-sytems-are-go

Literally….I didn’t post yesterday because nothing has changed in the short term, long term, and extra long-range. We have the strong cold front and snow moving in on Friday. It looks like 2-4 inches at lake level with 3-6 inches above 7000 ft. and 4-8 inches along the crest by Friday night. I am not seeing where we could possibly reach a foot like the NWS is saying.

Friday night it will get really cold with lows down in the teens and maybe single digits in the valleys. We may see some lingering snow showers and where we do it will be around 30:1 snow ratios so any snow that falls will pile quick. Even a tenth of an inch of precip would be 3 inches so with a fairly dry storm we could see a few extra inches Friday night.

We have a break over the weekend with cold air in place and highs only in the 20′s. For resorts with snowmaking we will have around the clock snowmaking conditions. We will begin to warm slightly Monday and Tuesday ahead of the next much bigger storm for Thanksgiving. Warm air advection precip ahead of the front could start as early as Wednesday with snow levels just above lake level.

Then we have a nice storm that is going to pick up a good amount of moisture and send in a fairly strong jetstream on Thursday. It’s too early to talk totals but this storm should definitely be the biggest so far this season. The GFS has another decent storm right behind it for the following weekend while some other models dry us out.

It is looking like the predictions of a flip at the end of the month could come true. The NAO and AO continue to forecast more negative for the end of the month and now the PNA forecasts are more positive. Looking at the analog years of La Nina and conditions like we have had in November with a warm East Coast and cold West Coast, the December following flips to warm on the West Cost and Cold in the East. This may temporarily put Winter on hold.

Well Tahoe locals?  How's it looking this morning, aside from all of that fire smoke from Reno?  I imagine Phil & TC are seeing a lot of that from across the way?