The Abridged version:
- Holiday visitors to the Lake Tahoe region are likely to see less snow and possible smoke from prescribed fires.
- As of Wednesday, only two ski resorts were open. The rest were closed due to a lack of snow.
- The weather has allowed the Forest Service to continue its prescribed burns on the south and west shores of the alpine lake.
If you’re making a holiday trip up to Lake Tahoe, don’t expect it to be a winter wonderland just yet.
As some of the major ski resorts postpone their scheduled opening days due to a lack of snow, parts of the alpine region’s normally crisp sky have filled with smoke from a handful of prescribed fires in the area. The combination will make Lake Tahoe look a little different than it did at this time last year, when November snow allowed some resorts to open ahead of schedule.
“While we were originally scheduled to open on November 26, we are postponing Opening Day due to limited natural snowfall and short, inconsistent windows for snowmaking,” Palisades Tahoe said in a news release updated on Sunday. The resort opened on Nov. 22 last year, five days ahead of schedule.
Palisades isn’t the lone resort waiting for snow. Only Heavenly and Mt. Rose were open as of Wednesday, with the rest predicted to open in the next few weeks. The website for Northstar California, which was projected to open on Nov. 28, says it will open ski slopes “as soon as conditions allow.”
Smoky skies
But conditions that have been unfavorable for skiing have allowed the Forest Service to continue its prescribed fires in the region.
The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit has ongoing controlled burns in the area, the Forest Service said in a release issued on Nov. 24. To reduce potentially hazardous fuels, fire management officials are burning sections of the south and west shores of the lake.
Residents and visitors may experience smoky skies for the time being. They can find more information about current Tahoe air quality on the AirNow website.
Daniel Hennessy joins Abridged from the California Local News Fellowship. He’s a reporter covering Yolo County.