Gray Day

It contrast to Andy’s “Great Day” yesterday, today was a “Gray Day”. That’s not to say it was not a good day of skiing. It was surprisingly good. After chasing dogs through the frozen tundra of our back yard this morning, I did not have high hopes for the slopes today. But as it turns out, the groomed slopes were soft and velvety, at least for the most part.

The sky was gray and no snow was falling when Roundhouse started spinning. But 30 minutes later, the skies turned even more gray, and flakes started flying. The winds also picked up and temperatures dropped a few degrees. It seems like very run or two, someone I knew would be heading in to warm up or add another layer.

In lapping Roundhouse this morning, only Ladies Slalom demonstrated any crispiness, due to it’s southeast exposure. That kept us from wanting to sample Sherwood or Lakeview. Summit was on windhold, not surprising for any day with an east wind.

Over two hours, a whole inch of new snow accumulated, and by the afternoon, that had practically doubled. So it was not really a powder day. A couple of quick samplings of off-piste terrain were unproductive. In general, it was kind of soft, but also kind of lumpy. The new snow could not overcome those lumps.

This storm was quite strong, being labelled today as a “cyclone”, which is what they call a hurricane in the Pacific ocean. Here’s a tweet with a great satellite clip that looks like it could be from the Caribbean in hurricane season.

Unbelievable satellite imagery of one of the most intense March cyclones on record for California with the eye of the storm making landfall near San Francisco.

Amazing. pic.twitter.com/nW4cmNmiSL

— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) March 21, 2023

It caused all sorts of issues with wind and rain along the coast today, and is forecast to bring as much as five feet of snow into Southern California again. As for us, we were barely brushed by the wrap around showers as the storm system moved down the coast.

What does the rest of the week look like? More of the same, small “nuisance storms” will continue all week and beyond. The problem is that none of those seems to bring more than a few inches at a time. It will be enough to keep the groomers freshened, but unlikely to add up to a powder day.

You may have heard that yesterday, snow totals in the Sierra have now surpassed the 1983 snow season, making this the second snowiest winter in the record books at 677 inches. We are now chasing down the 1952 record of 812 inches at the snow lab. As of today, there is another big system for mid next week that could bring us much closer to that total. With no end to winter in site yet, I am betting we will all be able to wear a tee shirt proclaiming “I Survived The Winter of ’23”.