Tag: weather

Just peeked outside, at 1:30, and it's snowing again!

Just a few pictures from the snow this morning. First is from Cheryl Mathwig.

6 to 12 inches of the white stuff

The rest are from my house, and my drive in this morning.

Blue skies to the east...

Angry skies to the west.

Doy! Fun!

Yes, I need to take the lights down.

Nasty roads.

The river's not too full. Anyone who was here in '97 knows to keep one eye always on the river.

Coming into Carson. Most of the lights in the south of town were out completely or flashing red.

So we woke up this morning to the largest snowfall we've had in nearly a year. I measured a solid six inches in Carson City and the Carson Valley both. Some are reporting drifts of up to 12 inches in areas. So I'd call this a pretty successful storm. Plus, it's noon and we've had hardly any melting yet, so that's another out-of-the-ordinary occurrence for us. And another wave is supposed to be hitting tonight, bringing in possibly another six inches.

Of course all eyes are on Fernley this morning, where a levee broke along the Truckee-Carson Canal early this morning, sending three to six feet of water into the neighborhoods in southern Fernley. So that could mean that thousands of people might have to weather this next storm in a makeshift high school shelter instead of in their own homes.

The Nevada Appeal has a few flooding pictures here and here and here.

So this is it. This is supposed to be The Big One. The big storm of the season, or at least the first to drop any snow that has any chance of sticking around for more than a day.

You know I usually take weather reports with a grain of salt, especially anything having to do with moisture here on the leeward side of the mountains. I've seen too many reports of a "storm train" or whatever they're calling it, that end up petering out to nothing. But this storm has already delivered on one promise: they said it would rain all day Friday, with gusty winds. And that's exactly what happened. They said it would turn to snow overnight, and now I look outside as it's getting dark to see flakes start to fall. So I might be starting to believe that we'll wake up tomorrow to 6-12 inches of snow.

I still won't completely believe it until I see it, though.

It's good to see snow on the mountains again.

Since I took these photos this morning, the clouds have descended again and it's been snowing lightly in Carson for the last couple of hours. I don't think it's due to last, though.

The first official snow of the season (not counting what we had in September) has finally arrived. Not that we got a huge blizzard here in the valleys. In Douglas County was had about a half-inch, and most of that has melted already. But the flakes are still coming down, it's just too warm to stick. Hopefully this will be the start of a productive winter. We need the water, after the year we've had.

It was a nice, warm sunny day at Lake Tahoe. There was a little nip in the air, but not bad at all. The problem was, it was the first weekend of December, and ski season was supposed to be well underway. But in fact, there wasn't even an inch of snow on the ground, not at any elevation. Nor was there a cloud in the sky, heralding any future precipitation. A fact which could spell trouble for both the economic picture at Tahoe, and for our water situation come next year.

Apparently we're well on track to having the second-driest calendar year in recorded history. On top of the record-breaking dry spell we had this summer, this fall has also had some of the lowest amounts of precipitation in recent memory. Lake Tahoe's levels are dropping, the ski resorts are delaying their openings or operating only a few lifts on artificial snow, and ski resort employees are still out of work. When you get two dry years in a row it starts to make people worry about drought, and if the rest of the winter is anything like we've seen so far in 2007, we could be in trouble.

Snow-making machines running at Heavenly on a sunny Sunday

Things might be looking up, though. There is a storm on its way in, that's supposed to be hitting us in the next couple of days. Here's the blurb from the National Weather Service bulletin:

For most of Western Nevada...there is a good potential for several inches of snow in the mountains and foothills. Snow is also likely down to valley floors...however exact amounts are not certain. Anywhere from an inch up to several inches of snow is possible.

I never underestimate the capability of these storms to disappoint us, though, so check back on the weekend to see how much precipitation we really got.

Boy, we had one mamma jamma of a windstorm last night. It blew my homemade playground right the hell over, no small feat because that thing weighs hundreds of pounds. So now I'm wondering how much wind damage there was other places in the area. Broken signs, toppled trees, that sort of thing. Keep an eye out, and let me know in the comments about any wind damage you see today!

So right now in Carson City and the Carson Valley it's snowing. On the valley floor. I knew there was a bit of a chill in the air, but I didn't see this one coming. Not that it's sticking to the ground or anything, but there's a long night ahead of us, and it's only going to get colder. I can't wait to peek out the window in the morning.

So is this a sign of a wet and wild winter to come? Or is it going to blow itself out early and we'll be dry the rest of the year? I still think we haven't seen the last of summer yet. It always gets sweltering hot that second week of October. Not that I wouldn't like to be proven wrong.

So the weather people managed to get it right twice this week. It started raining pretty hard in Carson City not too long ago, and we've got a nice little downpour going on here. How long it will last is the issue now. Probably not long.