We awoke to snow, snow, snow and more snow. We got over two feet of snow at lake level. The next few days it is to continue. If you are planning a trip during the Christmas break, consider Tahoe, because we have the white stuff and then some.

July 9, 2009
NOAA scientists today announced the arrival of El Niño, a climate phenomenon with a significant influence on global weather, ocean conditions and marine fisheries. El Niño, the periodic warming of central and eastern tropical Pacific waters, occurs on average every two to five years and typically lasts about 12 months.
Sea surface temperatures along the equatorial Eastern Pacific, as of July 1, are at least one degree above average — a sign of El Niño. Animation.
High resolution (Credit: NOAA)
NOAA expects this El Niño to continue developing during the next several months, with further strengthening possible. The event is expected to last through winter 2009-10.
So What is El Niño and why are we in Tahoe so happy to see its return? An El Niño is a temporary change in the water temperature of the Pacific ocean, in the region around the equator. You can see its effects in both the ocean and atmosphere, generally in Northern Hemisphere receives much more snow. Typically, the ocean surface warms up by a few degrees celsius. At the same time, the place where hefty thunderstorms occur on the equator moves eastward. Although those might seem like small differences, it nevertheless can have big effects on the world’s climate.

So your all excited to ski or ride some fresh powder, you check your favorite ski resorts web site to find them explaining that their conditions our “packed powder” ? say what? yea its that mystery marketing snow conditions known as packed power….this could mean anything from 10 inches of tracked out soft stuff to boiler plate ice. So what do you do? simple, buy yourself some NAS skis from Mervin manufacturing they will carve though any thing those misleading marketing executives come up with to get you on the hill. OH yea one other thing, 4 feet of fresh powder translates to about 40 inches of real snow…take about 2 inches off per foot then your reality will match the marketing departments hipe.

Sunrise shot Thursday morning “Red sky at nite, boarders uptight, red sky in morning, boarder be boarding” I’m up early most every morning, what a blessing to ses it start to snow at 6:15 am, Sunday Morning…..