Winter continues to inch its way toward the Tahoe Basin. The weather app on my phone says snow is supposed to start falling in 20 minutes in Truckee. Today’s tiny storm is just a little inside slider that is moisture starved, due to it’s overland path to Tahoe. Still, NOAA is calling for a couple of inches of accumulation before this systems moves out. After a month of dry and warm weather, I will take it.
Still, the cold weather is only to be found in the lower valleys of Tahoe. The inversion is still holding higher up on the mountains. While snow is forecast in Truckee, rain is forecast at Alpine Meadows. You can see that from this from the remote data at Alpine Meadows this morning:
I took a tour of the mountains via webcams at both Alpine Meadows and Olympic Valley this morning. Snowmaking is happening only at the base area at Olympic Valley, where overnight lows dipped into the upper twenties. That means that skiing and riding will still only be available on the First Venture chairlift and Kaya magic carpet until a stronger system mixes out the atmosphere.
Another inside slider is on tap for Thursday of this week, but it looks slightly stronger. The Canadian model paints the brightest picture for that storm, bringing the potential for about a foot of snow. The GFS and UKMET are not quite as bullish, showing somewhere closer to 6 inches of snow possible. The bigger story for Thursday’s system is that it should bring in much colder air and mix out the inversion. That means that snow-making teams will be able to get to work, with the potential to do some all day snowmaking for a day or two before things warm up a bit. Nighttime temperatures should stay cold enough for snowmaking into next week. Will there be enough snow to open more terrain than just First Venture by next weekend? That is the $64,000 question…the Thursday storm is not the storm we are dreaming about.
The good news is that the storm door does seem to be opening, rather than slamming shut after these two systems pass by. There’s a couple of more that appear in the longer range forecast. A system that appears about 10 days out looks to have the potential to bring several feet of snow, provided that the moisture and timing of the arrival of cold air all works out. At 10 days out, we’re just getting in to the “realm of possibility” so it bears watching.
“Buried” Showings Sold Out Locally Extended
We’ve been remiss in not mentioning the success of “Buried – The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche”. The film was created and produced by Alpine Meadows locals Steven Siig and Jared Drake. After winning awards at a number film festivals, it has sold out locally at the Tahoe City Art Haus & Cinema. I had intended to mention that tickets were on sale, but before I had a chance, the tickets were sold out for all showings. I heard that additional screenings were being considered, but no information is available yet.
Update on Monday Afternoon: The run of Buried has been extended through December 15th. Tickets are available again here.
Hopefully an in home streaming option or DVD purchase will be available soon, as I still have some uncertainty about spending that much time indoors in a crowd with a new COVID variant spreading.
Congrats to Siig, Drake and all of the other locals that were involved with the film production. I hope the film is just as successful as it goes into wider distribution.