There's lots of buzz radiating from the Sierra Crest today...it snowed overnight! @borealmtn beat @skialpine by about an hour Saturday morning to tweet the good news first. Boreal's webcam shows the incontrovertible evidence.
Alpine posted their pictures to their Facebook page.
All the hub-bub sent me back to Reno's AFD..the Reno Office is abuzz too. They've done an extra AFD Update already today, and continue to marvel over the coming Cold Front:
THE MORE INTENSE SYSTEM OFF THE PACIFIC DRIVEN BY THE UNUSUALLY
STRONG UPPER LEVEL JET STREAM OF 180+ KT WILL REACH THE WEST COAST
BY LATE TONIGHT. LIGHT RAIN WILL SPREAD OVER LOWER ELEVATIONS OF
NERN CA-FAR WRN NV THIS EVENING...THEN CARRY INTO W-CNTRL NV LATER
TONIGHT AS WARM ADVECTION PROVIDES SOME LIFT AS THE DEEPER PACIFIC
MOISTURE ARRIVES. MOST AREAS BELOW 5000 FT ARE EXPECTED TO
RECEIVE 0.10 INCH OF RAIN OR LESS...WHILE NEAR THE SIERRA CREST
FROM TAHOE NORTHWARD TO WRN LASSEN COUNTY THE RAINFALL RATES WILL
INCREASE OVERNIGHT AS A PRECURSOR TO THE MORE INTENSE PRECIP
EXPECTED ON SUNDAY. BY EARLY SUN MORNING...700 MB FLOW WILL
INCREASE TO NEAR 50 KT...ALLOWING FOR SOME GUSTS TO 40 MPH TO MIX
DOWN ALONG THE LEE SIDE OF THE SIERRA INTO THE HWY 395 CORRIDOR.
LOCAL WIND PRONE SITES COULD RECEIVE GUSTS NEAR 50 MPH THRU MID
MORNING...PRECEDING THE STRONGER WIND EVENT EXPECTED FROM LATE
SUNDAY MORNING THRU THE REST OF THE DAY.
THE STRONGEST WINDS ARE EXPECTED OVER THE TAHOE BASIN AND INTO THE
RENO-CARSON CITY VICINITY ON SUNDAY FROM LATE MORNING THRU EARLY
EVENING...AND EXPANDING SOUTH TO MONO AND MINERAL-LYON COUNTIES
SUN AFTERNOON AND NIGHT. INGREDIENTS FOR DOWNSLOPE WIND EVENT
REMAIN IN PLACE ESPECIALLY NEAR HWY 395 CORRIDOR WITH 60-70 KT
WINDS AT 700 MB...STABLE LAYER EXTENDING FROM 700-600 MB AND SOME
PRECIP SHADOWING ALSO HELPING AS WELL. EVEN IF SOME RAIN FALLS AT
TIMES IN THE RENO-CARSON VICINITY...THE WINDS WILL STILL HAVE
POTENTIAL TO REACH HIGH WIND CRITERIA ESPECIALLY BTWN 2 AND 6 PM.
All abuzz just like every first "real storm" of the Fall, everyone is pumped! My heart rate pumped up too, when I read 180+ Knot Jet Stream...the forecast team had been waxing poetic almost as the system developed and their models foretold possible scenarios. I loved this from Friday afternoon's AFD:
A SECOND...STRONGER STORM SYSTEM DRIVEN BY A POWERFUL 180+ KNOT JET
AND FUELED BY A LONG FETCH OF MOISTURE IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC
I like the salty sound of that...Long Fetch...salty as in nautical. Then I read the 180+ Knots deal, and I'm thinking aeronautical...I'm pretty sure you could land an FA-18 Hornet (like the Navy's Blue Angels fly) at 180 knots in a pinch...good thing that's the Jet Stream and not down on the deck (read Sierra Ridges)!
 |
| Airspeed guage for a multi-engine aircraft...much lower performance than the FA-18! |
Snowmaking weather is less certain going forward. There's plenty of confusion in the models this far out...say 48 hours and beyond...a lot of stuff happening along the storm track. Persistent high clouds would scotch the whole snowmaking program by acting like a lid on a saucepan, keeping temps warm and humidities up.
Stay tuned, as they say...
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