March has not been a bad month, especially compared to the prior 4 months. Many of the resorts will end up more than doubling what had fallen all season in March. Squaw had only picked up 142 inches before March and has now picked up another 137 inches in the month of March with more than 5 inches coming tomorrow night.
The resorts in the Northwest corner of the lake have done the best all picking up 140-150 inches so far this month and pushing their season totals close to 300 inches for the season. That brings them up to around 65% of average for the season. Still a dismal season? Yes, but a world of difference from where we were at a month ago. Even better is that there is a little bit more to come before the month is over.
There is a storm approaching the Pacific NW which will direct moisture into the Sierra Tuesday night into Wednesday. This isn’t a super cold storm but cold enough for snow down to lake level. The forecast models have been back and forth a little on how much precip will make it down into Tahoe. Going off the latest runs today it looks like we could see 5-10 inches of wet snow at lake level, 10-15 inches above 7000 ft., and maybe up to 20 inches West of the lake up along the crest above 8000 ft.
Here is the snowfall forecast off the GFS model this evening through Wednesday.
There will be two more systems pushing into the Pacific Northwest Thursday and Friday staying to our North. Being on the South side of the jet stream and with the Southwest flow we will see lots of mild air push in. Snow levels could be up to 8000 ft. by Friday so it will be good that at most we should only see a light shower or two.
Then on Saturday a cold front will swing through dropping snow levels to lake level, and dropping several inches of snow. Right now it looks like we could see several inches to a foot above 7000 ft. All together not huge amounts of snow but we could see 1-2 more feet on the mountains before we flip to April on Sunday. Maybe a bit more up along the crest.
Here is the snowfall forecast map through Sunday.
The forecast models diverge next week with some showing the chance for another storm Tuesday before the ridge builds in, and other showing the ridge building in right away. We may see another storm that could bring several more inches next Tuesday but then after that it does look like we dry out for at least a week. BA