Weather
In case you haven’t heard, the weather has been crazy this week and will only get crazier. Mt. Baldy is no exception. About an hour East of Los Angeles, Mt. Baldy is SoCal’s most popular ski area. Winter storm Olive is rolling into town, and Mt. Baldy is first on its list, projecting 100+ inches at the mountain before it moves on to Utah as it will continue hammering ski areas across the U.S.
Preparing for the storm, Mt. Baldy closed the ski area yesterday (2/22/2023) and today (2/23/2023) as it waits for the madness to ensue. Snow is expected to start Thursday afternoon and go through Saturday night, with most of the snow falling Friday.
I had to pull out the calculator for this one. One hundred inches translates to over 8 feet potentially dropping on Mt. Baldy!
If things aren’t already crazy enough, the ski area will be under a blizzard warning and flood watch simultaneously Friday and Saturday.
So what is the record for snowfall for 24 hours in the U.S.? According to the NOAA and Weather Underground, Crestview maintenance station of the California Highway Department, located just north of Mammoth Lakes, received 84 inches (7 feet) during 24 hours on January 14-15, 1952. The storm lasted about a week (January 11-17th) and delivered 149 inches. Unfortunately, a Southern Pacific Railroad train became trapped in the snow near Donner Pass for three days, beginning January 13th. All 226 passengers were rescued safely.
If you want to track the storm, check out the National Weather Service (NWS) and Mt. Baldy’s mountain updates.
