Following disappointing snow totals the day before, Wednesday morning brought some modest rejoicing to Tahoe ski resorts, who are hoping for a white Christmas.
The slopes will be white, but not plentiful this weekend when Santa arrives in the Lake Tahoe region. Tahoe ski resorts received between 2 and 16 inches of snow in the previous two days, opening more holiday lifts and runs for what’s expected to be big large crowds of skiers and snowboarders.
There was joy at Sugar Bowl on Wednesday. The resort, located off Interstate 80 at Donner Summit, got zero snow Tuesday but had 7 inches of new snow by Wednesday morning (Dec. 20).
“Mother Nature did not drop the ball in the past 24 hours, but instead dropped about 7 inches of snow,” a weather blog on the Sugar Bowl website said. “Though it’s closer to Christmas time, it feels like we’re celebrating Thanksgiving with these mashed potato conditions.”
Kirkwood received the most two-day snow among Tahoe ski resorts with 16 inches, followed by Mt. Rose (13) and Palisades Tahoe (10). Four other resorts accumulated 7 inches.
SEE TAHOE SNOW REPORT BELOW
Mt. Rose, which has the highest base elevation (8,260 elevation) among Tahoe resorts, has the most snow this season with 52 inches. Sugar Bowl has 46 inches, Kirkwood has 38 and Palisades Tahoe has 31.
WEATHER FORECAST: The National Weather Service (NWS) expects mostly sunny days Thursday through Christmas Day, and possibly into the Dec. 26. Highs should be into the 40s for the lower elevations near the base and 30s for the upper mountain through Friday.
The temperatures are expected to cool down into the 30s for the weekend behind a dry cold front Friday night as a system moves through to the north.
The long-range models have been showing a pattern change for the last week of December. They continue to show the northeast Pacific trough pushing into the West Coast by Dec. 27, with an extended Pacific jet stream aimed toward California.
LAST CHRISTMAS SNOW TOTALS: What a difference a year makes. Thanks to some huge December storms, there was an abundance of snow at Tahoe ski resorts for the Christmas holidays, the busiest time of year.
There were nine Tahoe ski resorts with 121 inches or more last Christmas time. Boreal had a whopping 181 inches, the most in the region. Sierra-at-Tahoe had 167 inches and Palisades Tahoe wasn’t far behind with 163 inches.
The snow this ski season has been meager thus far.
“We are well below average so far to start the water year,” said Tyler Salas NWS meteorologist in Reno.
TAHOE SNOW REPORT (December 19-20)
- Kirkwood: 11-5: 16 inches
- Mt. Rose: 7-6: 13 inches
- Palisades Tahoe: 7-3: 10 inches
- Northstar: 0-7: 7 inches
- Sierra-at-Tahoe: 5-2: 7 inches
- Diamond Peak: 6-1: 7 inches
- Sugar Bowl: 7-0: 7 inches
- Heavenly: 3-3: 6 inches
- Homewood: 0-5: 5 inches
- Boreal: 2-0: 2 inches
- Soda Springs: 2-0: 2 inches
- Tahoe Donner: 2-0: 2 inches
- Granlibakken: TBA
