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Tahoe Region Deals With Record-Breaking Snowfall

A man stands in front of a very large mound of snow.
Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows
A massive mound of snow in the Squaw Valley parking lot.

The Tahoe region is reporting staggering snowfall totals for the month of February. Truckee received 121 inches while Tahoe City came in at 134 inches. 

The snowstorms over the past few weeks are due to moisture pulled out of the subtropics and then brought up into California and Nevada. This has resulted in warmer snow storms, which can lead to higher avalanche dangers.

At Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, the snowfall has been record breaking with 313 inches, which is the highest for any recorded February, an already short month. Additionally, this is the most snowfall in a given month in the resort’s history, surpassing January 2017’s record of 282 inches.

“It’s been a lot of shoveling,”  Squaw spokesperson Alex Spychalsky said. “And you know, everyone's arms are getting a little bit of tired, like getting a little tired from digging their cars out and shoveling their driveways and everything. But for us at the ski resort, it's really exciting to see, you know, a number like that and a record being broken like that with that much snowfall falling this month.”

Spychalsky says when the roads are safe to travel on, business is good.

“Anecdotally, I know I've had a lot of friends of mine from the East Coast kind of calling me being like, “Hey, can I crash on your couch for a week so I can come out and ski?,” So I think it is drawing in a lot of people from outside of our general market,” Spychalsky said.

Down in the valley, Reno saw more than 17 inches of snow in the past month when normally it receives less than 5 inches in February.

Lucia Starbuck is an award-winning political journalist and the host of KUNR’s monthly show Purple Politics Nevada. She is passionate about reporting during election season, attending community events, and talking to people about the issues that matter most to them.
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