Skiers rejoice as roughly one to two feet of snow falls in the Sierra this week. The snow came in waves. Round one came on Tuesday, and the second round on Wednesday. The blog continues after the video version of this story.
Update: Washoe Valley saw wind gusts in the lower 80’s opposed to the 60’s.
Down sloping winds leads to wind gusts over 70 mph in Reno and parts of the Sierra saw wind gusts over 100 mph. Much of the Sierra reporting one to two feet of snow as well. Update: Washoe Valley sees a wind gust of 83 mph Wednesday night, much higher than 67.
Places like the Central Sierra Snow Lab measured 13 inches of snow. Mt. Rose Ski got over a foot as well. Overall, more snow fell on the western side of Lake Tahoe compared to the east due to shadowing.
The convective nature of the showers on Tuesday evening helped to pile up the snow quickly. Some resorts got a foot of snow on Tuesday alone.
No snow in Reno this week, but it was plenty windy. In fact, Reno clocked a wind gust of 78 mph on Wednesday night, right before the 11 pm hour. Which is interesting, because wind gusts were below 50 mph otherwise. Washoe Valley also saw wind gusts in the 80’s. Ridgetops saw wind gusts over 100 mph.
Wednesday was a classic example of the rain shadow effect. Keeping the snow and rain to the west of the mountains, with strong down sloping winds in the valley. This allows for wind speeds to accelerate, compressing the air as it does so.
