Rain and snow may arrive to Lake Tahoe and Sierra by Easter weekend

A combination of rain and snow for Lake Tahoe and the Sierra is possible by the weekend, according to the National Weather Service in Reno.

Low pressure in the eastern Pacific is expected to move slowly toward the California coast around Friday into the weekend. This will bring an increased supply of subtropical moisture with the possibility of rain over a larger portion of lower-elevation western Nevada, and a mix of rain and snow at the higher elevations of the Sierra and Lake Tahoe.

The snow would be welcome news for Lake Tahoe ski resorts, which got a blast of it last week in time for Sierra-at-Tahoe, Kirkwood Mountain and Heavenly spring competitions and on-mountain activities.

The track of this low is still uncertain, so the amount of precipitation and snow levels may vary, along with the timing and intensity of the precipitation, the weather service reports.

The images above show upper air flow patterns (green arrows) and model precipitation estimates (shaded areas with heavier amounts in blue and green) projected for Thursday afternoon (left image) and Saturday afternoon (right image).

For Wednesday and Thursday, weak disturbances will bring increased moisture into California and Nevada, with light showers possible mainly north of Interstate 80.