Tahoe’s first big snow of year delights skiers
OLYMPIC VALLEY, Placer County — Skiers rejoiced Wednesday as a storm covered Lake Tahoe with its first significant snowfall of the new year, following a slow start to the season — though weather experts said the storm did not significantly move the needle for the state’s scant snowpack.
Flurries blanketed cars in the Alpine parking lot of the Palisades Tahoe resort early Wednesday morning as excited mountain-goers raced to be first in line for the ski lifts.
The echoing booms of avalanche bombs ricocheted off the valley walls, accompanied by cheers and the celebratory clang of ski poles coming from the Summit chair lift line as it started loading promptly at 9 a.m. — the telltale signs of a powder day.
Resorts across the region received between 10 and 15 inches of snow in the past 24 hours.
This storm brought the lowest elevation of snow levels and most widespread totals of the season so far, according to Chronicle staff meteorologist Anthony Edwards, with even Mount Hamilton near San Jose receiving a light dusting of snow.
Even so, experts said the recent snowfall alone won’t make up for early season deficits.
“This storm is falling drier than originally thought, which seems to be the theme of the year so far,” said Andrew Schwartz of UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab at Donner Pass.
Just under 11 inches of new snow was measured at the lab on Wednesday morning, which still only put the spot at 38% of its average snowfall for this time of year, Schwartz said.
Statewide, the storm helped the snowpack jump from 25% to 33% of normal for this time of year, according to state data — but the snow levels don’t even come close to this time last year, when the snowpack was 185% of normal in the Central Sierra.
Skiers hitting the slopes Wednesday morning reminisced about last season, but still remained excited about the new snow.
“Last year was the best year I’ve seen in my life, but I’ve definitely seen less snow than this,” said Jason Winegar, a Tahoe local of 15 years who was skiing on Wednesday morning.
Despite the slow start, he remains positive about the prospect of snow this season: “Every time you try to put a finger on the pattern it’s different,” he said. “I’ve seen the driest Januarys followed by the wettest Februarys.”
A few flurries and light snow showers were possible in the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday afternoon, but the most significant snow was over, said Edwards. A quick-hitting weather system Friday morning could bring light snow accumulations, but isn’t expected to make much of an impact.
“The next major winter storm is coming Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning and is expected to bring similar or slightly higher totals than Tuesday night’s storm,” Edwards said. “Lake-level could even pick up a half-foot to a foot of snow from the weekend storm.”
Tahoe needs big, successive storms producing 2 to 4 feet of snow to really make up for the slow start to the season, Schwartz said — but he added that nothing that large is looking too likely yet.
“The fact that we’re getting some of these moderate storms means we are kind of just keeping up with where we’ve been,” he said. “The challenge becomes now that we are so far behind that we need very large storm systems … to make up for the snow deficit and keep up for the rest of the year.”
But Schwartz said not to panic just yet. “We’ve seen slow starts to normal and above average seasons before,” he said.
A group of local teens waiting for the first chair in the Summit lift line were stoked for the fresh powder.
“I’m just excited to not ski ice moguls,” 16-year-old Storm Jacobs said.
“I’ve seen the driest Januarys followed by the wettest Februarys.” Jason Winegar, Tahoe local
Chloe Shrager is a Rebele breaking news reporting intern for the Chronicle. She is a senior at Stanford University, where she studies political science, human rights and journalism. In her free time, she enjoys spending time in the outdoors and also works as a seasonal ski coach at Palisades Tahoe, where she reported this story.