It was another brisk day at Alpine Meadows. Morning lows in Truckee were reportedly at record status at –22°F, and Alpine reported a temp of – 1°F this morning, although the remote sensors show the low near 3°F. There’s no doubt it was cold last night, but temps remained cold all day – with a high of 17°F at the base and around 11°F at Ward Peak. Reportedly, the snow surface temperature was the lowest ever recorded at Alpine Meadows. Nobody in California is prepared with wax for those conditions! Our first traverses out to High T this morning actually seemed sticky, as in snow freezing to our bases.
Nonetheless, we were rewarded with pockets of untouched powder and warmer bodies as a result of hiking. Groomers were in fantastic shape again today, except for the fact that high speed laps left you with numb lips, fingertips and an ice cream headache.
The park features continue to expand daily. We noticed other people talking today about how empty the parks have been. The only exceptions were the small features near Tiegel and the newly created Subway park. It was awesome to watch the little rippers take on the small jumps.
The forecast is slated to stay clear for some time now, with a slow warmup as we get toward next weekend. Here’s a forecast summary:
NOAA
LONG TERM…THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY…
NO MAJOR CHANGES TO THE LONG TERM. STRONG RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE WILL REMAIN OVER THE WEST COAST THROUGH NEXT WEEKEND, BRINGING DRY WEATHER AND LIGHT WINDS TO THE REGION.
BA at OpenSnow.com
We will have to watch how things develop this week. We may have to wait until the last week of the month for a pattern change that will bring storms back to CA. Whether it will be warmer storms with the jet stream undercutting the ridge or cold storms dropping out of the Gulf of Alaska we will have to wait and see. The dry Januarys that we have seen over the past several years have been followed by a big February or March.
The Weather Geek at TahoeLoco.com
There are no significant storms on the horizon.
Paul at TahoeWeatherBlog.com
We have been talking about a dry period now for the last couple of weeks. That is what we are in and it will continue for at least two weeks unless something changes that cannot be foreseen at this time by the weather models.
So there you have it. Our powder days are going to be curtailed for a bit, so maybe we can hope for our “normal” January corn cycle to get going as soon as possible. Maybe by next weekend we’ll be enjoying corn turns and Hawaiian shirts for the Ice Bar Opening party?
There’s always shopping at Squaw Valley 😉