There’s many times we mention weather resources here at Unofficial Alpine, and readers want to know where to find that information on their own. While we can’t give you a full course in meteorology here, we can offer you some links where you can find more information. This can help you be better educated than relying on what your TV meteorologist says, or that other guy that people often quote on lift rides.
Palisades Tahoe At The Western Weather Group
This weather page was just made public sometime recently. It used to only be available to mountain operations staff. It’s quite the effort at transparency to provide the link for public use now. Data is available for both Alpine Meadows and Palisades Tahoe. It is very comprehensive, being originally targeted for people that need detailed data. It’s also customizable. So sometime when you have some time to play, test it out.
Your best best would be to start by playing around with the Alpine Meadows map to the right. Initially it will display temperatures at 6 different spots around the mountain. Use the menu to change that to wind speeds, directions, minimum temperatures, new snow and other details. Note that the snow information is only available for the station at the bottom of Roundhouse.
Below the map section are some graphs that tell a longer term story about winds and temperatures for advanced users. Custom reports are also available. I have not played with that feature yet.
NOAA Remote Data Page
We are very lucky that the Reno office of NOAA supports a Remote Data page that gives temperature and wind information for a number of mountains around Tahoe. Some sites also offer snowfall data. Very few local offices offer this sort of information. That page was revamped in the fall of 2023, and that gave us the impetus to update here. I am enjoying the fact that someone in that office still recognizes Alpine Meadows as Alpine Meadows.
The new “Table Data” format generates pretty content at four different elevations: Base @ 6950, Roundhouse @ 7880, Scott? @ 8120 and Summit @ 8643. The downside to using the pretty new format is that snowfall data is not included.
The “Text Data” Format will link to the old style format, which does includes estimated snowfall data at the base area. It does not include the Scott sensor.
Although I am generally a visual learner, the Graph Data format completely mystifies me. Maybe you like it.
WeatherWest.com
Weather West is a weather blog run by Daniel Swain, PhD. Swain was writing a weather blog, originally called The California Weather Blog, likely before he started shaving. Years later he is a highly respected meteorologist. It’s likely that you have seen him interviewed by major news sources, often when the effects of climate change are ravaging some part of the US. Unfortunately that means that Mr. Swain has become a very busy guy. Official posts from Daniel now only arrive every month or so, often in time with pattern changes or major storm systems. That said there is a very large following of professional and amateur meteorologists that follow and comment on his posts. Typically, several hundred comments may be posted each day. You can learn a lot by following those comments.
The PNA Index
We mention the PNA index frequently here at Unofficial Alpine. The “Pacific North American” pattern is a simple way of looking at ridging versus troughing in the air over the Pacific Ocean. Ridging, or a positive PNA index, is usually of sign of weak or no storm activity. Troughing, or a negative PNA index, is generally what we want to see if we want to see storms.
The PNA Index is very over simplistic. There are many factors that contribute to great snow storms. It’s just a quick way to look at model trends.
Pivotal Weather
There’s a lot of places to look at the weather models online. I find that Pivotal Weather is fairly easy to navigate and it also generates pretty maps.
As I stated in the introduction to this page, there is no way to teach you what to look at or how to interpret the models. But here it is for your learning.
SnowyRoads.Info
The SnowyRoads.Info site just started popping up in my feeds this winter and it is a great concept for anyone that often drives from points west to any of the Northern California ski area. It includes each and every place where chain controls either being or end. In the limited testing I have done over the last few storms, it seems to be kept up to date pretty well.
It does more than just make a visual picture of chain controls. It also includes links to web cams along the way, weather conditions, lift statuses and more. When I first looked, it also displayed what was currently being displayed by each of the CMS signs along Highway 80 and 89. It’s not showing that at the minute, so i wonder if that only appears when there are chain controls active.
It’s free and easy to use. My only complaint is that is doesn’t say “Palisades Tahoe/Alpine Meadows”.