Winter Weather Forecast 2011/12 Western United States of America

This forecast is boiled down from what our boy at TahoeWeatherDiscussion.com published on his site recently. This dude nailed last year, even forecasting the mid season dry spell before the winter even started.

Winter Weather Forecast 2011/12 for Western United States of America:

– Winter 2011/12 Forecast = slightly below average precipitation

– Winter to start a bit late, end a bit early, and be FAT in the middle

– Strong jetstream during middle of winter from Gulf of Alaska into Pacific Northwest (Tahoe included) pushing repeated storm cycles into PNW

Jamison Blair in the Deep Pow of 2010/11 at Squaw Valley. photo: skier666

– North Pacific and Canada blocking (due to negative Artic Oscillation) last year resulted in 100+ inches of snow/week when it happened. This is likely to happen quite a bit again in 2011/12.

– Cold January & Febuary in West combined with storm systems = above average snowfall with high snow to water ratios.

– Joe Bastardi’s 2011/12 Winter Forecast = 133% of average winter for Western USA Mountains (Sierra Nevada & Cascades)

western united states winter weather forecast map — Joe Bastardi’s (aka ‘the balls’ of N. America long range forecasting) forecast map for the USA with light blue = 100% normal precip. and dark blue = 133% normal precip. Joe put that dark blue a bit east of the mountains of the west, but he meant it to be on them.

It sounds like winter will start a bit late, end a bit early, be potent in the middle, and be damn cold in Jan & Feb with plenty of stupid blower pow? When did Tahoe become such a magnet for deep blower dry pow? Good question, I’ll tell you when: 2007. Before then, we didn’t get much blower, but starting in 2007 and since, we get it a lot. It’s cute, and good for faceshots, but gimme the wet sticky, windpressed Tahoe goods that stick to the steep, keep me on top, and allow for huck wild days with 300’ of combined Tahoe airtime.