Severe weather conditions, highlighted by more than 1,000 lightning strikes in the region, shut down Tahoe ski resorts Thursday.
The lightening, a rarity this time of year, took place over a 12-hour stretch in the Sierra and Western Nevada. Regardless of the time of year, when lightning strikes its best to quickly go indoors.
Alpine Meadows may have been the only Tahoe ski resort that stayed open Thursday afternoon (Feb. 14).
Located in Incline Village on Tahoe’s north shore, Diamond Peak shut down its lifts in the morning.
“Anytime there is lightning in the region, every resort will temporarily shut down lift operations, as you saw this morning,” said Diamond Peak spokesperson Paul Raymore. “It happens fairly infrequently, but it does happen. This is the second day (this year) we’ve had to hold or suspend operations due to electrical activity in the area this season. The first time it happened, we were able to reopen after approximately 30 minutes.”
That was not the case Thursday. Other contributing factors for keeping skiers and snowboarders off the hill were extremely high winds and poor visibility.
Kirkwood Mountain reported the worst wind conditions of any Tahoe ski resort. On its twitter account, it noted that winds at the top of Chair 6 were gusting as high as 169 mph.
Another unwanted storm entity was rain. It rained quite a bit Wednesday and really reduced the potential snow totals. However, some resorts still added significantly to their snow totals.
Check out the Tahoe Snow Report below.
Mt. Rose, located in Nevada and close to Lake Tahoe, received the most of any Tahoe ski resort, getting 19 inches of new snow over the 24-hour period. Northstar California received 14 inches of snow, but the bad news is the weather shut down the resort by mid-morning.
Squaw Valley received a foot of snow by Thursday morning and became the first Tahoe ski resort to exceed the 400-inch mark for the 2018-19 season. The resort has 408 inches this season.
Typically hard hit when storms arrive, Sugar Bowl received only 7 inches of snow. Like many Tahoe ski resorts, Sugar Bowl closed by Thursday mid-morning.
“Unfortunately, due to the wind and weather, we had to close operations for the day at about 10:30 a.m.,” said Sugar Bowl spokesperson Jon Slaughter. “We pride ourselves in being able to get the resort open, no matter what the conditions. But safety is the top priority and today’s conditions presented unsurmountable obstacles.”
WEATHER REPORT: According to Bryan Allegretto, OpenSnow California Snow Forecaster. the snow levels dipped below lake level Thursday afternoon and will slip to 3,000 at night. He predicts 1-3 feet of snow by Friday morning, including 6-18 inches at lake level. However, the high winds will continue with gusts of possible 100 mph, which will no doubt have Tahoe ski resorts shutting down upper mountain lifts Friday.
Allegretto says another storm wave arrives Saturday with snow levels dropping to as low as 2,000 feet. He predicts 1½ to 3 feet of powdery snow. Allegretto believes the week of Feb. 18-23 the weather may remain cold but with a drier pattern arriving. Light snow could fall Wednesday and Thursday.
TAHOE SNOW REPORT (24-hour totals; reported Feb. 14)
- Alpine Meadows: 5 inches
- Boreal Mountain: 0 inches
- Diamond Peak: 6 inches
- Heavenly Mountain: 10 inches
- Granlibakken: 0 inches
- Homewood Mountain: 5 inches
- Kirkwood Mountain: 13 inches
- Mt. Rose: 19 inches
- Northstar California: 14 inches
- Sierra-at-Tahoe: 4 inches
- Soda Springs: 6 inches
- Squaw Valley: 12 inches
- Sugar Bowl: 7 inches
- Tahoe Donner: 6 inches
