Stormy in the Sierra Nevada Today

Winds are howling around our house at elevation 5000 feet, and they're topping 90-100 MPH over the ridges.  At those speeds, we'll end up with trees down across many hiking trails int eh Sierra Nevada next Spring.  Many of the weakest trees in many areas were already knocked down by the thousands in a wind storm in November 2011.  

South Lake Tahoe is forecast to get up to 10" of snow today, 19" tomorrow.  Of course up higher at the ski areas, they'll get a lot more.  So far it's looking like we'll get a high snowpack season, so as I work on my 2013 calendar I'm expecting a relatively late opening for Tioga Pass and trails for backpacking impacted well into July.  Anything can happen though; Winter weather has been erratic over the past two seasons.  last year Tioga Pass didn't close for the season until January 17, a record late date.  The year before snowfall records were set in some areas, but January was really cold, clear and dry.

This photo is the sunset that +Lori Hibbett and I came home to when we stopped between our Big Sur and Death Valley trips.  

Three Sisters Sunset December 11, 2012

Google+: Reshared 23 times
Google+: View post on Google+