Skied Northstar Yesterday. Updated Weather for this weekend 12/4/2010
Dec. 2, 2010
Still epic conditions up at Northstar yesterday. As always, the lunch at the Tahoe Mountain Resort's Alpine Club was the best part of my day. I'm still blown away at how much snow is on the ground, lack of crowds and how lucky we are to live here.
Tim Lampe, your Realtor by Choice for 29 years.
Tahoe's weather pattern for the next few days is about as muddled as it gets. We could see anything from mostly dry to more than a foot of snow at the higher elevations. But whatever comes will be slow and sporadic. This won't be a big dump like we saw last week, but a trickle of snow showers off and on for several days, perhaps finally adding up to something.
The short term is solid enough: a low pressure system moving east today and Friday should bring rain and high-elevation snow to the region. Snow levels are expected to start out close to about 6000 feet late today or tonight and then rise during the day on Friday as warmer air from the south filters into the region. Look for 5 to 8 inches of snow above 7000 feet by Friday night, with a mix of rain and snow in the Tahoe valleys and around the Lake.
The big mystery for the weekend remains the trajectory of a cut-off low pressure system that's drifting down the coast. This is a system that has severed itself from the jet stream and is doing its own thing for a while. These kinds of low pressure systems tend to be very unpredictable because it is difficult to pin down their path and when they will turn east, until they do.
For now it looks like the system will hang off the coast most of Saturday and Sunday and send a few weak waves of energy toward the Sierra. If that happens, snow levels will again be on the high side. But persistent if weak showers could still bring another 6 to 10 inches of accumulating snow above 7,000 feet and a few inches lower down. Then again, this low could drift further offshore and further south before moving inland, limiting the snow accumulation in Tahoe and increasing it a bit in areas south of here, down into Mono County and the Mammoth region.
After what looks like a break on Monday and Tuesday, next week's weather is setting up as wet and, unfortunately, warm. A cold front from the north looks to merge with a plume of subtropical moisture from the Pacific, and whichever force wins out will rule the day when it comes to snow levels. Right now those levels look high, at least at the start, before dropping later in the week. But either way it does look like a lot of moisture is headed our way.
Tahoe Outdoors: Coming events
ALPENGLOW SPORTS WINTER FILM SERIES -- December 9
Total snowfall: 62.3 inches
Percent of normal for the entire month: 64%
