Weather
January 2021 skiing in California has been… bad, to say the least. Multiple sunny, 50F+ days have rotted away any snow that they have gotten. However, things are finally starting to look up for the Golden State, with a “superstorm” snow event on the way.
The storm is forecasted to drop almost 100 inches at many resorts in the next 7 days.
Kirkwood in South Lake Tahoe is favored to get the most snow. The mean forecast SWE total is about 6.5 inches or about 80 inches of snow. Other resorts, like Squaw, Alpine Meadows, and Mammoth are all forecasted to get more than 60 inches of snowfall just in the next week.
Areas north of Lake Tahoe, near the Sierra Buttes, are forecasted to get more than 9 inches of precipitation accumulation, which translates to about 110 inches of snowfall!
The 7-10 day forecasts look promising, as well. OpenSnow.com shows promising snowfall continuing into February. Fingers crossed for big precipitation this week!
Yeah! All these weather forecasting posts & not a single mention of the potential slippery roads or super cold temps that will accompany the massively historic epic 100 year atmospheric river arriving, maybe sometime this week. Will I need chains if I have a Range Rover?
Yet no one has even mentioned the high avalanche dangers this storm is potentially going to produce.
What’s up with that?
Cmon now high wind loading, colder than average temps on a frozen layer with already a small weak layer recently deposited.
People are chomping at the bit to get some but experience and wisdom says watch out, be smart and safe and make good decisions to not venture into the backcountry due to the potential for serious avalanche risks this storm cycle will bring.
And also expect late openings at most ski areas due to avalanche control and potential for post control release.
Excellent observation for us lowlanders Hype It!
Typos on “inches” instead of feet