Weather
California skiing stays locked in a mostly dry spring pattern through Sunday, March 29. Confidence is highest from Saturday morning through Sunday night, March 21-29, when guidance stays tightly clustered around warm days, limited overnight cooling at lower elevations, and periodic afternoon wind instead of new snow. For the open Sierra resorts, expect a spring surface cycle with firmer mornings and softer turns by late morning into the afternoon, especially when the breeze stays manageable. Southern California remains warm and dry as well, and Mount Baldy is temporarily closed, so the on-snow focus stays squarely on the Sierra.
From Saturday through Wednesday, March 21-25, the forecast is straightforward: no meaningful snowfall, above-normal temperatures, and a few breezier afternoons. The models are converging well on timing and intensity here, namely a dry stretch with no real snow-level issues because no storm is moving through, and they also agree that wind impacts should stay noticeable but mostly manageable. Around Tahoe and the northern Sierra, daytime mountain temperatures generally run in the 40s and 50s, with Mammoth in a similar range and the southern California mountains warmer. Saturday brings a brief west to northwest wind bump, then Monday through Wednesday trend breezier again with exposed Sierra terrain commonly seeing winds in the teens and 20s mph and occasional higher gusts. That is enough to rough up ridgelines and make a few chairs less comfortable, but it does not look like a major shutdown pattern. With no fresh snow to work with, the ski product should stay firmly in spring mode at the open Sierra hills: firmer early, best softening from late morning into midafternoon.
From Thursday through Sunday, March 26-29, guidance still favors a warm-leaning, generally dry pattern, but confidence starts to taper once you get past Sunday night. The broader signal continues to support limited storm production across California, so Tahoe, Bear Valley, Mammoth, and the other open Sierra resorts should keep leaning on settled spring snow rather than fresh coverage. Model agreement remains decent on the dry idea through Sunday, although temperatures ease a bit from the midweek peak and afternoon breezes become more variable. After that, timing, intensity, snow levels, and wind impacts all spread out on a weak Monday night through Tuesday, March 30-31, system. The snowier scenario brushes the higher Sierra with roughly 2-6″, while most other guidance keeps snowfall trace, spotty, or absent. If that late wave does materialize, snow levels would likely start near 7,000-8,000 feet before falling toward 4,000-6,000 feet, and snow quality would be decent rather than especially light, generally around SLRs of 10-15 once colder air settles in.
