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This Page Was Last Updated: on 3/31/2025 at 5:00 AM
Last Day Cleared: Monday, March 18, 2025
Number of Days Cleared: 20 in Tahoe Donner | 8 in OG | 10 in Boulders

Good Morning,

A slow start, but we can expect things to rev up!

Our crews plan to begin clearing at 8 a.m., with barely 4” of new snow accumulation as 4 a.m. this morning. We’re keeping an eye on the snow level as it increases with engines revving up here in Tahoe Donner, and we’re keeping an eye on accumulations for Boulders, Downtown, and Old Greenwood areas at this time.

Radars and reports show that this storm will hit its hardest today (Monday, March 17, 2025) through early Wednesday (April 2, 2025), followed by lighter snowfall to last into Thursday (April 3, 2025). Friday on we are looking at a drier pattern with some extended forecasts calling for April showers, but it’s the weather so we can only speculate.

Think April will dump to bring May snow jumps? Stay tuned for more updates—we’re ready for whatever comes next.

Think April will deliver another round our will we begin to thaw out for summer? Either way, it looks like spring skiing conditions ahead. 

With all that being said, bring on the snow!

Thinking of heading up here for the weekend? We cannot stress enough the need to plan ahead and check in with both CalTrans Road Conditions as well as CHP Truckee.

PLEASE MAKE EYE CONTACT with any operator before approaching or coming near the machine.

Please make sure you plan your travels accordingly and leave yourself enough time to get there slowly!

The Last Hurrah…!

Summary

Snow for Monday and Tuesday, with strong winds on Monday. Partly – mostly sunny on Wednesday and Thursday, with a chance for afternoon showers. Mostly sunny days through the weekend and into next week with milder temperatures. Weak systems are possible later in the month.

Short Term Forecast

We saw lighter rain & snow showers on Sunday. They increased overnight, with snow levels falling to lake level by Monday morning. The 6 AM Monday snowfall reports are showing 3-16 inches of snow so far for this storm, and 4-day totals of 5-22 inches on the upper mountains.

A coating up to 5 inches of snow has fallen so far for areas around the lake at lake level. This is a great start to this storm, as you will see with the increased snowfall forecast for the rest of the storm through Tuesday!

Monday-Tuesday Snowstorm:

This storm is just getting started. We saw rain & snow showers on Sunday, with an increase in snow showers Sunday night along with falling snow levels. This morning we have snow levels down to lake level in the 5500-6000 ft. range, with moisture continuing to stream into the northern Sierra.

The ridgetop winds are gusting up to 100+ mph over the ridges, as we can see from the sensor at the top of Palisades. That will close quite a few upper mountain lifts for Monday.

This will be one of the better snowstorms of the season here on the last day of March and 1st day of April. The moisture will continue to flow into the region Monday with a cold front moving through and dropping snow levels much lower Monday night, down to around 3000 feet! That will help to increase the snow ratios and accumulations.

The center of the low-pressure system off of the Pacific NW coast will move through northern CA on Tuesday, bringing another surge of moisture, and then snow showers into Tuesday evening.

Highs near freezing at lake level both days and 20s for the upper mountains. The winds could still be gusting up to 50-70+ mph from the west over the ridges Tuesday morning and then 30-50+ mph by afternoon, so you may be able to get to more terrain, especially by afternoon.

By the time the storm clears Wednesday morning, we should have seen a nice dump of powder, with snow ratios averaging 13-16:1 or better over the next 48 hours, and all snow to lake level and lower.

The latest model runs show as much precipitation or a bit more Monday morning through Tuesday night as they did for the entire storm 48 hours ago. They show an additional 2.0 – 3.6 inches near the crest and up to 2 inches to the east side of the basin. The highest totals are possible SW of the lake.

Obviously, if the forecast models are showing an additional 2.75 inches of precipitation on average near the crest, and my final forecast Saturday morning was using 2.33 for Sunday – Tuesday, then we should pick up more snow than my 1-3 feet forecast for this storm. We could see an additional 1-3 feet on top of what has already fallen!

What’s special about this storm, that we have not seen much this season, is that colder air is filtering in during the heaviest part of the storm Monday into Tuesday, with snow levels already to lake level Monday morning. Cold air and orographic lift are how we get big powder dumps. The center of the low moving through the region on Tuesday hasn’t happened much this season either.

What a way to finish March, which will be the biggest month of the season, and to start April, which could end up being 5 of 6 months this season with above-average snowfall measured at the Snow Lab after this great start. I hope everyone can get out to enjoy this cold storm on Tuesday & Wednesday.

Wednesday – Thursday Weather:

The low-pressure system dropping down the coast on the forecast model runs a few days ago has disappeared as it stays well north, but enough moisture in the atmosphere over the region on both days could spark off afternoon convective snow showers over the mountains.

I’m not expecting much in the way of snowfall, just snow showers possible. Outside of that, we should see partly – mostly sunny skies both days with highs into the 30s, and lighter winds.

Town of Truckee Clearing Report

CHP Roads & Highways Report

NWS Forecast

Periods of moderate to heavy mountain snow will result in difficult travel in the Sierra through Tuesday. Increased chances for spillover into W NV valleys, bringing impacts to the AM and PM commute today. Strong, gusty winds continue today for much of the area.

TAHOE WEBCAMS