The first 2/3rds of January '09, however, were bone dry at Lake Tahoe and very warm. With low sun angles and cold nights, the skiing was good on the groomed, corduroy runs at the resorts, but off-trail and in the backcountry, conditions were sketchy.

The big storms in December boosted the water content in the Sierra snowpack to 83 percent of normal. January is statistically the wettest month of winter. But with the month now 66% over, the sunny days and near-record warm temperatures have seriously reduced the snowpack; the water content has dropped to 68 percent.

The spring-like weather conditions have been good for winter sports, traveling, and reducing energy consumption, but skiers and hydrologists have started to worry. The snow cover has been getting thin at the resorts. and California reservoirs are down from two dry winters.


With a sizable chunk of the winter precipitation season over at this point, the months from February to May will have to produce double the average precipitation to provide California with a normal water year. This is a very unlikely scenario, but there is hope. A big storm is currently brewing in the Gulf of Alaska.

Below are some photos of the great skiing and never-ending views of the Tahoe Region--during the first half of January.





Editor's Note: Mark McLaughlin is a Tahoe Historian who can be reached at mark@thestormking.com. Story & photos are by him.