After promising the start of the snow season, what's next for Tahoe?

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In California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains and Tahoe Basin, early-season storms piled up large amounts of snow, giving the snow season a head start. A series of storms have hit the mountains in recent weeks, and last week a series of storms delivered three to five feet of fresh power at elevations above 5,000 feet, the National Weather Service said. As a result, the Sierra has 194% of its normal snowfall at this time of year.

“We got a lot of snow over there, but it was cold and we didn’t go anywhere,” said Craig Shoemaker, a meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology’s Sacramento office. ”

All this is good news, but what will happen before the end of December?

According to Chris Johnston, a forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology’s Reno office, the seven-day forecast does not show significant snowfall.

“We have one system that could affect us next week. [Monday to Tuesday]But the northern Sierra and the Cascades will see very light snow,” Johnston said.

Another system could brush Sierra on Thursday. The Weather Service’s Sacramento office is forecasting two inches of snow in Donner’s path this week on both weak systems.

“We were expecting mild and dry conditions until Christmas and possibly beyond,” Shoemaker told SFGATE by telephone.

Johnston explained that the high-pressure ridge over the Pacific acts like a wall, preventing storms from reaching California.

“If that ridge collapses, as happened earlier this year, these storms could come and affect it,” he said.

Looking ahead more than a week, Johnston said there were signs of snowfall in the Sierra over Christmas weekend, and that snow could pile up, but said the forecast could change in the coming days. I was. The weather service says he can predict the weather 7 days ahead with 80% accuracy, but the weather forecast for 10 days ahead is about 50% accuracy.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s long-term outlook, from December 24 to 30, the Sierra will experience near-normal temperatures and below-normal to near-normal precipitation. Southern California is projected to be drier than the northern part of the state.

Johnston said it’s typical for California to have a dry season during the Sierra’s snow season.

“Is the storm door fully closed?” he said. “Unlikely”

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