Will March 2018 Be The Snowiest Ever Month in Californian Ski History?

There have been more huge snow storms at Californian ski areas this week with some ski areas now questioning whether this month may end up their snowiest ever.

Squaw Valley reports having had 4.7 metres (185 inches or more than 15 feet) of snow so far this month and says that’s more than they got in January last year when they set an all time snowfall record for any month of operation since the area opened.

Nearly another 2.5m (100 inches) of snow will be needed to break the 717cm (282 inch) record set in January 2017 though, but with the are reporting 107cm (35 inches) in the past 24 hours alone, that may be possible.

Last season Squaw stayed open to mid-July clocking up more than 200 ski days, it’s longest ever ski season.

This winter was very different to 16-17 across California and much of Western USA as drought conditions and warm weather meant there had been very little fresh snowfall until mid-February and totals since then have dwarfed the amounts that fell in the first three months of the season. Last winter it was very snowy from day one.

The next few days look clear and sunny with a return to snowfall from midweek.

Although Squaw Valley has topped the snowfall total and with 401cm now has the deepest base in the Tahoe are, all of the region’s other resorts are getting dumped on too and there have been powder alarms for big snowfalls at resorts in other states too, including Utah.

Homewood (above) got 99cm of snowfall on St Patrick’s Day and has a 389m base, Tahoe Donner 89cm (three feet) yesterday and it has a 255cm base.

Stats for Lake Tahoe as a whole show the normal monthly snowfall average is around 180cm (70 inches) for each month from December to March with March marginally the second snowiest after December.