WEATHER INFORMATION
 Current Conditions in Truckee |
Note that the town of Truckee is approximately 1,170 ft. (357 meters) lower than the trails at Auburn Ski Club. Daytime highs will commonly be lower and nighttime lows often higher on Donner Summit. For a website with lots of current conditions and links for Truckee, go to www.magnifeye.com. |
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Weather and Snow Conditions:
Immediately adjacent to the lower ASCTC trails is the USFS Central Sierra Snow Laboratory. Weather and snow records below are directly applicable to the venue.
For more detailed weather record information visit:
http://research.chance.berkeley.edu/cssl/ and www.thestormking.com.
Sierra Snowfall History
by Mark McLaughlin
The vision most Americans have of California’s weather is of an endless summer paradise of golden sunshine and gentle breezes. But residents and travelers in the Sierra Nevada endure some of the most severe winter weather in the world. Snowfall measured in feet, wind gusts in excess of 180 mph, destructive avalanches and wind chills far below zero.
For more than 160 years, people have battled the blizzards, snowslides and powerful storms that dominate the Donner Pass region of the High Sierra, where snowfall totals average 33 to 37 feet every winter. This pass gained perpetual notoriety in 1847 when the California-bound Donner Party was caught east of the summit by early winter snow. Short of food and lacking supplies, the snowbound pioneers spent the winter trapped in hastily-built cabins, buried under 22 feet of snow.
Other years have been as bad, if not worse. In 1907, the region south of Lake Tahoe was paralyzed by more than 73 feet of snow, the Sierra’s greatest total on record. The winter of 1938 dumped 819 inches on Donner Pass, which shut down the highway for weeks at a time and isolated the communities of Truckee and Tahoe City.
In January 1952, a relentless blizzard trapped a westbound streamliner train for more than three days with 226 passengers and crewmembers on board. Hurricane-force winds and deep drifts stymied all rescue attempts until the epic storm finally abated. Storms that winter dumped 65 feet of snow at the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory on Donner Summit, and the snowpack reached 26 feet, the greatest depth ever recorded there.
On March 31, 1982, in the midst of one of the biggest snowstorms in Sierra history, a massive avalanche roared down the slopes at Alpine Meadows Ski Resort. Tragically, seven were killed, but rescuers never gave up searching for 18-year-old Anna Conrad, an Alpine Meadows employee who was buried by tons of snow and debris. Miraculously, after five days of probing by rescue volunteers, she was dug out of the wreckage alive, and today enjoys skiing in the Sierra with her husband and children.
For more exciting stories about Sierra Nevada weather and Tahoe-Truckee history, Mark McLaughlin’s award-winning books are available at Bookshelf Books in Truckee and Tahoe City, and Village Hallmark, next to Raleys in Incline Village. For a complete list of Sierra snowfall records and the weather history of Donner Pass, visit his website at: www.TheStormKing.com