‘Atmospheric Rivers’ producing great ski conditions, boosting snowpack in California

An atmospheric river storm, a long and wide plume of moisture pulled in from the Pacific, began sweeping across the northern part of California Friday and was expected to bring more rain through Saturday, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

In the Sierra Nevada, up to another 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow is possible in the mountains above Lake Tahoe, where a winter storm warning stretches into Sunday morning.

A series of storms in the late fall and so far this winter have produced stellar conditions at some of California’s ski resorts.

Mammoth Mountain reported a base depth of 85” at the main lodge and 125” at the summit on Friday, according to onthesnow.com. Further north in the Lake Tahoe area, Boreal Mountain Resort reported a base of 80” with seven inches of fresh snow over the past 24 hours and Soda Springs had a base of 75”.

While it might be too early to discuss records, resorts are hopeful that Mother Nature will continue to deliver into the new year.

“The amounts of snow being forecast out of this next Atmospheric River event in early January certainly have the possibility of threatening some records, but we’ll have to see how the pattern develops,” said Mammoth Mountain spokesperson Tim LeRoy.

The news is also encouraging when it comes to the impact on California’s drought situation. Surveys show snowpack running well above average for this time of year in the north, central and southern areas of the state.

According to the California Department of Water Resources, the Southern Sierra region is 184% of normal after having received 13.7 inches of “snow water equivalent” to-date.

California Ski Report for Dec. 30, 2022