Tahoe is digging out from our recent winter storm, in which we received over 10 feet of snow in seven days! A storm of this caliber has not been seen in South Lake Tahoe in years, and all of us who love that fluffy white stuff are rejoicing! Tahoe does have a past of record breaking winter storms, with the most recent on the top ten list being the winter of 2010 – 2011. We received strong early and late season storms delivering staggering amounts of snowfall. You can view a list of the Top 5 Snowiest Winters here. If 2017 continues on this same trajectory, this year might be added to the list!
Snowy Start to 2017
January, so far, has been an amazing month for snowfall. We started off with 70 inches of snow in the first five days of 2017. Our recent snowfall, brought in on the atmospheric river known as the pineapple express has been dubbed ‘Snowpocalypse 2k17’. When the forecasts started rolling in, we were skeptical of the high snow totals being projected. Tahoe hasn’t seen a significant ‘dumping’ in years! Tahoe braced for the storm as snow replaced rain on Monday 1/9/17, and were then shocked at how fast snow accumulated Tuesday through Thursday. South Lake Tahoe was hit hard, with road closures and intermittent power outages for three days. The National Weather Service, and road crews, urged residents to avoid travel due unsafe winter driving conditions. But, on Thursday, the snow tapered off and people started emerging from their snow bunkers to find a winter wonderland had descended upon South Lake Tahoe!
2017 Tahoe Blizzard Impact
Our 2017 blizzard significantly aided in reducing the drought that both California and Nevada have been in for five years. Tahoefund.org announced on January 5 that more than 15 billion gallons of water had been added to Lake Tahoe since the start of the year. By January 9, 2017 another 18 billion gallons were added. With over 33 billion gallons of water added to Lake Tahoe since January 1, Lake Tahoe has risen one foot! Snowpack numbers also came in and the Central Sierra is at 156% of average. How did this happen? Check out the snowfall numbers below, generated from OpenSnow.com:
Amazing Skiing and Riding
As we received such a significant amount of snow in so short a period (11 feet in one week), operations at all of the Tahoe mountains were impacted. Here are just a few of the recent social media posts from the mountains.
Operations teams are working hard to dig out from all the snow, and for the mountains to be 100% open for Martin Luther King Jr Weekend. All of the mountains now have a great base, and with this added powder you will be able to spend days on the mountain without skiing the same run twice! With four different access points to the mountain, if you are staying in South Lake Tahoe chances are your vacation rental is not far from one of the lodges. Check Heavenly’s Lift Status before you head to the mountain in the mornings, to confirm what lifts are running. We will see you on the slopes this weekend!
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