A monster of a winter storm has descended on Lake Tahoe ski resorts and is producing some amazing snow totals.
Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe near Lake Tahoe is reporting 5 feet of new snow by late Wednesday afternoon and is expecting the torrid snow storm to continue tonight before slowing down Thursday.
South Lake Tahoe ski resorts – Heavenly Mountain and Sierra-at-Tahoe – are reporting as much as 3 feet of new snow in the past 48 hours.
By early afternoon, Heavenly had received 12 inches of snow in the previous 12 hours. Two other Vail Resorts were also getting dumped on. Northstar California also received 12 inches of snow and Kirkwood Mountain had 11 inches, both in a12-hour time frame.
The National Weather Service forecast calls for significant snow to continue this afternoon and evening, and for snow showers to taper off Thursday and Friday before another significant storm system moves in Saturday in the Lake Tahoe region.
Extended forecasts also indicate that multiple winter storms will continue into next week.
“This storm has been incredible. Five feet of snow has piled up over the past couple of days, and it’s continuing to fall fast this afternoon,” said Mike Pierce, director of marketing at Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe. “This system and those forecast to come behind it are setting us up for an incredible winter season, and one of the snowiest January’s in years.”
Season-to-date, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe has received 210 inches of snow, with current average base depths of 84 inches.
It’s been quite the weather day for travelers, who got stuck on Lake Tahoe’s primary corridors – Interstate 80 and Highway 50.
Eastbound traffic on Highway 50 was being held for a time at Echo Pass and westbound traffic was held at Meyers for avalanche control. Caltrans District 3 announced via Twitter that it lifted a traffic hold by late afternoon.
A Caltrans camera showed heavy snow and traffic backed up I-80, where eastbound vehicles were being detoured in Colfax.
