What is that white stuff?    First snow since January 4^th!

Well if you can call it that.  It was more like a serving of glop.  The weathermen predicted a sizable storm last night and they didn’t come through.  Most of us were excitedly watching the weather report and the Winter Storm Watch for last night.  I kept looking out my window wondering why it wasn’t snowing.  Late last night the foot plus winter storm watch flashing on the weather page all of the sudden turned into “Winter Storm Watch Cancelled.”  Yes, the weathermen actually cancelled the storm on us.  They truly toy with our emotions.  This cancellation notice is about is close to an apology as you can expect, even President Bush admits more mistakes than these guys.

The bulk of the storm petered as it approached the sierra crest, it just didn’t have the guts to push over.  Nevertheless, we did receive some moisture and at this point we will take every little bit we can.  It lightly rained at lake level with some intermittent snow showers yesterday and the mountains got as much as 4 inches of wet snow.  The skiing was ok, but that couple inches of glop wasn’t enough to hide the firm layer underneath.  You could also tell that it rained on the mountain a little yesterday because there were some occasional ice patches.  The good news is wet snow is what we need right now.  Being that we have a very firm layer to build upon, avalanches are a major concern.  If the coming storm systems bring us significant snow be warned that backcountry conditions will be extremely dangerous.  The wetter the snow the better chance it will have of bonding in time.  In an ideal world the storm systems will come in progressively, because if we get a big 3 foot dump there is a good chance that it will just naturally slide off all the steeper slopes.  Of course, I won’t complain if it dumps.

So, lets get over the storm that could have been and look at the menu for tonight.  It appears as if a huge mass of moisture is currently approaching Tahoe from the south.  It looks like the storm will arrive this afternoon.  I would be shocked if this storm missed us.  The questions is will it be rain or snow?  If it is snow it could easily deliver feet.  It is good news that the bulk of the storm should hit us when the sun goes down.  Tomorrow might just be the best day of the season, of course it could also be the worst if the rain washes away our thin base.  Think snow.