Weather
This forecast is brought to you by Bear Valley Mountain Resort.
Bear Valley stays mostly dry through Monday with spring skiing conditions, then a two-part storm brings a meaningful refresh from Tuesday into early Friday. The first part of the storm looks relatively warm, so the upper mountain should do best while the 6,600-foot base sits close to the rain-snow line at times. Then colder air follows Wednesday night and Thursday, dropping snow levels enough for a more complete, mountain-wide coating. A reasonable expectation is 12″-22″ by early Friday, with the best snow quality arriving late in the storm and the windiest periods centered on Wednesday and Thursday.
Through Monday, guidance is tightly clustered around dry weather, an early breezy east-to-northeast flow, and above-normal daytime temperatures. Friday still has some leftover gustiness, then winds ease and the weekend looks quiet, with mornings generally in the 30s and afternoons reaching the upper 40s to low 50s. That should mean classic spring conditions with firmer starts and softer snow by midday rather than fresh snowfall. Confidence is strongest in this dry stretch because the guidance shows very little spread on precipitation and only modest spread on temperatures and wind after Friday.
Confidence is highest from Tuesday morning through early Friday, when all guidance converges on a two-wave storm for Bear Valley, even though the exact handoff between waves still varies. Snow should break out Tuesday, with the steadiest first push favored from Tuesday afternoon into early Wednesday. Most guidance keeps snow levels around 7,000 to 7,500 feet at the start, so the summit should collect efficiently while the base stays marginal at times. Snow quality in this phase looks dense, with SLRs mostly around 4-9, and wind guidance is fairly well clustered on gusts building into the 30s by Wednesday.
The colder second wave is most likely from Wednesday night through Thursday evening, when coverage broadens and skiing conditions improve the most. Guidance agrees on falling snow levels, generally dropping into the 4,500 to 6,500-foot range by Thursday, though it still diverges on how quickly that drop occurs and whether the heaviest burst comes late Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Snow quality should improve from dense to fair or moderately light, with SLRs rising into roughly 9-13, while gusts around 30 to 40 mph could affect exposed lifts. After the storm winds down, the broader signal turns colder and mostly dry Friday into the weekend, with no clear follow-up storm before Monday and only lower confidence on how quickly spring warmth rebounds.
Resort Forecast Totals (Tue Mar 31 – Fri Apr 03)
- Bear Valley – 12″-22″
