A wet and windy Monday turned into a bonus blast of snow on Monday, October 19th, catching a few by surprise and stoking the fires for the coming ski season.

Monday's forecast had no mention of snow, but snow it did. By mid-morning, flakes were flying along the Sierra Crest, and continued off and on for most of the day.

Ski resorts prepping for the coming season were caught by surprise. Sugar Bowl, on Donner Summit, reported 2-3" of new snow by mid-afternoon, and accumulations at Alpine Meadows' base lodge were in the 3" range, as evidenced in the video footage taken at around 1pm.

The third storm in recent weeks is a welcome lead-in to the winter season.

"These early storms are ideal for the coming season," commented Savannah Cowley, Palisades Tahoe's spokesperson. “This high moisture content, early season snow is absorbed into the ground which is superb for our base layer. In contrast to rain, wet snow stays on the ground long enough to moisturize the ground which allows the new snow to better adhere.”

Resorts are in final preparations before starting the lifts. Palisades Tahoe will open for the season and celebrate its 60th anniversary on November 21st. Sugar Bowl celebrates its 70th year on Donner Summit this season. Alpine Meadows has a scheduled opening date of December 5th, followed by Homewood on December 18th. Northstar-at-Tahoe is will start the season on November 21st.

Palisades Tahoe Video - Oct. 19th

Alpine Meadows Video - Oct. 19th

For daily snow reports throughout the season, follow the Lake Tahoe Snow Report online at Tahoetopia.com, or on >a href="http://www.twitter.com/tahoesnoreport">Twitter.