Mt Whitney Zone

www.easternsierraforecast.com
We sure need some more snow! The snow graphs have been flat for the past six weeks:

Here are the current California Dept. of Water Resources graphs. The third one covers the Whitney area.

California Snow Water Content
I like this chart from the Mammoth Mountain Ski Patrol site:
  Mammoth Mountain Ski Patrol

This chart shows wind gusts off the chart. That's greater than 150 mph at the summit between 7 and 8 a.m. Mercy!!! The average wind speed at 8 a.m. was 90 mph.

Quote:
That's greater than 150 mpg


dang, that's better than a Toyota Prius! wink



5+ feet of snow for Mammoth Mountain in the cards with this storm
I was once skiing on Mammoth, in high winds. My rather distinctive had blew right off my head. A few minutes later a ski-patrol guy came from the direction the hat had gone. So, I innocently asked him if he had seen it. He told me he knew exactly where it was. Nevada.
That's the most memorable thing I recall about staying in Mammoth Lakes - listening to the wind whistle over/around Mammoth Mountain during the overnight hours. Well, actually, the most memorable thing about staying in Mammoth Lakes was my early morning encounter with a hungry bear in our condo garage - as in less than a foot away when I realized it was a big ol' bear, not a big ol' dog, hightailing it out of the dumpster room.

Anyway, I bet the folks staying in Mammoth Lakes got one helluva serenade last night and this morning!
Nothing like class 5 hurricane force winds to get the blood pumping lol.
Does the data actually exist somewhere to indicate what the actual "off the chart" wind gust speed was? I noticed that even at the lodge/base at around the same time, the winds were around 90 mph!! I'm guessing all the lifts were shut down...

CaT
Note that there are two hours of gusts off the chart. I assume that the spot on the hour is the maximum for the entire hour, so there were two hours with high gusts between 7-9.

Yes, they close the top lifts in high winds. The lifts at the base usually stay operational since they are down in the trees. I was there over the weekend and returned on Monday afternoon. The upper lifts were running but not taking skiers until about 10 am on Monday. Then they stopped letting people on around 11 am (when I was on my way up for the last time). I also was there in December when they only had 5 base lifts operational under high winds.

They say that there usually is a 6-week cycle up there, so I planned my trip accordingly.
Originally Posted By: VersatileFred

They say that there usually is a 6-week cycle up there, so I planned my trip accordingly.


you planned for the bad weather?

I'm looking at an April 1 Whitney weekend - looks like 6 weeks from now - does that mean it's likely to be blowing and snowing again due to that cycle?
Originally Posted By: Fishmonger
Originally Posted By: VersatileFred

They say that there usually is a 6-week cycle up there, so I planned my trip accordingly.


you planned for the bad weather?

I'm looking at an April 1 Whitney weekend - looks like 6 weeks from now - does that mean it's likely to be blowing and snowing again due to that cycle?

Anything is possible, and the 6 week cycle I heard about is probably only an average. I knew that we were due for more snow, so I made an effort to go as early as possible that weekend. This is supposed to be a La Nina year with precipitation coming in waves.
Snow levels down to 2000' in the Central Valley, according to the Bee.
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