Here's an interesting bit of trivia (to me, anyway) about snowfall in the Tahoe region.
Everyone knows that Tahoe gets tons of snow. Does more snow fall because Tahoe is at 6,250 feet above sea level? How about nearby areas like Kirkwood at 8000 feet?
Yes, but not for the reason you probably think!
When storms push off the Pacific and rise up the Sierra, the clouds cool, and they can't hold as much water vapor. So they drop their moisture as precipitation. Here comes the surprise trivia.
By the time the storms have come up over the Sierra crest at 8000 to 10,000 feet, they've already dropped the majority of their moisture!
This moisture generally falls as rain on the West Slope of the Sierra. As the storms get to the higher mountains, the air has cooled enough that the remaining precipitation usually falls as snow. And because Tahoe is colder, that snow usually sticks around and accumulates into a deep snow pack.
Once in awhile, the storms stay cold enough that the foothill precipitation comes as snow down to 3000 feet or even lower. When that happens, the greater total moisture in the foothills means that the higher foothills can actually get more snow than Tahoe!
Tonight, we are supposed to get a moderate storm. It will be cold. As I write this, Tahoe is expected to get up to 8 inches at 7000 feet and up to 12 inches on the Sierra crest. But the higher foothills are expected to get up to 18 inches!
Because foothill temperatures are generally warmer, their snow will melt and Tahoe's snow will remain, adding to the perception that Tahoe gets all the snow. The bottom line is that the foothills get more total moisture than Tahoe. When it's very cold, that occasionally translates into more snow.
This happens a couple of times a year.
Phew! You probably couldn't get through the day without knowing that, huh?
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