End of January Drought in CA: Rain or Snow?

tseeb

tseeb

Well-known member
Today's weather is going to cause more problems than 6 days in the low 50s at So. Tahoe and one day that hit 50 at Truckee. Kirkwood at 5 am is reporting 34 degrees and 0 inches of mixed rain and snow. So. Tahoe is reporting 36 degrees and light rain at 5:45. This storm has a southerly track and moisture with San Jose getting more rain than San Francisco and the North Bay. Where I live got over an inch of rain overnight which should get us back to 50% of normal rainfall. We were down to about 40% of normal rainfall. Storms this weekend are supposed to be colder.
 
Anything that falls today in SoCal mountains will be rain. Temps are in the 40's up there. Snow likely next Monday or Tuesday, hard to say how much in SoCal. But Howard Scheckter says
SEVERAL FEET IS POSSIBLE BETWEEN THE WEEKEND AND THE FIRST HALF OF NEXT WEEK OVER THE CREST
Click to expand...
in the Sierra.
 
that storm is a total let down, complete rain in socal mountains, but looks like the sierras, atleast mammoth, received nicely though
 
My friend called me from Sugar Bowl yesterday where he was skiing unexpected powder. He lives in the foothills at 2500 feet and decided to go after waking up to 2 inches at his house. Dodge Ridge claims 36 inches out of the storm and Kirkwood 22-39 inches so it did get colder after lows of 35 at South Tahoe Thursday and Friday.
 
55 inches storm total so far at Mammoth, since most of Thursday-Saturday was wet snow, not rain. No surprise Garry Klassen drove up there yesterday to hit the opening of the top today or tomorrow.

Tahoe rain/snow incidence can be gauged by Squaw's snowfall tracker page: http://www.squaw.com/winter/snowfall.html
Jan. 22-24. Zero snow at 6,200, 18 inches at 8,200
Jan. 25-26: 10 inches at 6,200, 14 inches at 8,200
 
kirkwood has much better snow than i expected from the reports of rain and warm temps.they are reporting something like 33 inches.i have not found that,but its good dry powder where i was today and bluebird
 
The upper numbers for Squaw are just above Kirkwood base elevation. So wet snow for 3 days, with 2 days drier snow on top; that's a recipe for good skiing IMHO.

Excellent powder report from Garry at Mammoth. Minimal wind packing. The top opened about noon today.

SoCal is marginally improved. Last night was 2-4 inches of snow, but everything Thursday-Saturday was rain. Big Bear has been making snow for 18 hours and will have the weather to make more most of this week. So it should be decent out there by the weekend. Mt. High will make snow, but probably only in the core sectors of West. Baldy is also making snow, but I have few illusions that it will be worth skiing there until another dump.
 
looks like finally some decent precip in Socal this weekend. If NWS snow level predictions stay the curse, it would be all snow at most resorts. (starting at 6,500 ft lowering throughout).
 
Anyone thinking of heading up to Baldy on Monday? Thinking about calling in sick, but I need a ride up to the hill, my RWD and summer tires ain't gonna make it up there.
 
as of about 5:30 PM, only 1-2" at 7,500 ft near Mt. High. It's been pouring here in Wrightwood the last hour or so, and 35... ugh. the weekend still looks fairly promising, but this first wave was too warm.
 
Just got an email from Mt. Baldy. They say they've gotten 12-18 inches already and expecting 2-3 ft more with the snow level at 5000 ft. Sunday could be a great day up there, I I actually make it I'll take some pics and post them.
 
I'm planning to head up to Baldy tomorrow with a friend or two. Watching the web cam off and on today from work, it looked like there wasn't much precipitation today unfortunately, hopefully it's not too tracked out already. I'll try to get some good pictures tomorrow and report on coverage etc.
 
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