Sunday PM:

This is last update on this storm.  The main thrust of the last wave is moving into the high country with increasing precip rates. Mammoth Lakes may pick up another .5 to .75 hundreds before the nights over.  All with be snow on the mountain and turning to snow in town where some 2 to 5 inches is possible by morning. Monday morning may still experience some lingering showers early, with improving weather during the afternoon. The storm door closes thereafter until late in the week when the weather may become unsettled….the main track still remains to the north.

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There is a lull in the precipitation rates this morning…..The temperatures at 8:19AM at the 8200 was 37 degrees. Latest satellite motion shows the AR band of moisture thinning. However there is some enhancement out about 140W which is probably the wave that will end the storm for the Sierra and lower snow levels later tonight. By the time the snow level lowers into the town, most of the moisture will be through. However, the town may still get some 2 to 4 inches of accumulation before it is all over.  The vast majority of this storms precipitation has been and will continue to be from about Sonora Pass northward.  The Mammoth Pass storm total thus far is 1.6 inches, Yosemite 2.22 and to our neighbors to our north, Blue Canyon at 9.33 inches.

There looks to be about another 1.00 to 1.50 of precip to fall today and tonight. Thus….It is possible that another 10 to 15 inches of snow could fall at elevations between 9000 and 11,000 feet, temperatures considered. ( IE the ratios will be higher later tonight)

The Snow level will remain little changed in the Mammoth area at about 8200 to 8500 feet until later this afternoon when in comes down briefly to 8000, then rises back up to 8200. After 10:00pm, it will gradually fall again to 7000-7500 feet.

By Tuesday of next week, the freezing level takes a hike to over 11,000 feet.  It looks to be a 6 to 10 day period of above normal temps and below normal precip. However, Mammoth Mountain will have picked up a good 2 to 3 of feet of dense snow that will greatly expand the terrain available to skiers and boarders for the upcoming presidents holiday period. Once our air mass dries out, night-time temps will cool back into the 20s and the snow will tend to dry out a bit as well

Long Range:

As the Dweebs have mentioned several times before, as the sun get higher in the sky later in the month of February and into March, chances are good that parts of the complex structure of variables that have created this winter will begin to break down. It will then be toward months end and well into March that the Snows along with colder temperatures will return to the Mammoth Lakes high country as long wave trofing over the eastern pacific returns by next month.