sierra nevada

Gary Romano, owner of Sierra Valley Farms presents his newest book, "July & Winter: Growing Food in the Sierra" at the South Lake Tahoe Library on May 20 at 2:00 p.m.

Romano shares his knowledge from decades of experience growing food in the Sierra Nevada. Despite the challenging mountain climate and soil, he has successfully grown food on his 65-acre organic farm and shares hard-earned tips, essential for home gardeners and small farmers.

This interesting, inspiring and free event is presented in partnership by the Friends of the Library and the UCCE Master Gardeners of Lake Tahoe.

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The Virginia & Truckee Railroad will once again offer special train rides over the Mother's Day weekend, May 13-14, that will take moms and families from Carson City to Virginia City aboard a historic train.

All mothers will be honored with a long-stem rose as they board the 1953 ALCO (American Locomotive Company) heritage diesel locomotive for the 16 mile trip to the Comstock-era town of Virginia City.

Snow, rocks, boulders, trees and debris are being cleared from roads through the Sierra Nevada that have been closed all winter. Caltrans crews from Districts 9 and 10 are plowing through several feet of snow in some area. While some roads will be opening soon, many have a lot of work to be done before they can open to traffic.

Crews will inspect the road, bridges, culverts to make sure the road is safe for the public before reopening. They will also replace signs that tumbled during the winter.

Imagine a world with no frogs. No longer would you hear frog melodies in the evening, algae would flourish, and entire ecosystems could change dramatically. This is a possibility in the Sierra Nevada because 90 percent of the Mountain yellow-legged frogs have been disappearing due to an amphibian pathogen and loss of habitat from fish introductions in our lakes.

More signs that California is rebounding after five years of drought were evident on Echo Summit Thursday morning as the snowpack measured at 183 percent of average. This snow water equivalent (SWE) reading by the team from the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program was 46.1 inches.

The readings represent 183 percent of the long-term average at the Phillips measuring station near Sierra-at-Tahoe. Statewide, the electronic readings from 95 sites in the Sierra showed the snowpack at 164 percent of average, or 45.8 inches. Average for all of the Sierra Nevada is 27.9 inches

This year’s Shakespeare Showcase Series performances at Sand Harbor in Lake Tahoe include the Sierra Nevada Ballet, the Reno Philharmonic with pop, rock, jazz, the Alexander Hamilton Chautauqua and Trails & Vistas World Concert.

These events are popular and tickets do sell out.

Reno Philharmonic
Bravo on the Beach: Reno Phil Rocks Tahoe!
July 17, 2017 @ 7:30 p.m.
Single Tickets: $60-$130 / Tables: $300-$600 (Tables seat 2 or 4.)

Sierra Nevada Ballet
The Sleeping Beauty – A Fairy’s Tale
July 24, 2017 @ 7:30 p.m.
Single Tickets: $25-$75 / Tables: $150-$300 (Tables seat 2 or 4.)

Mother Nature has decided the Lake Tahoe Basin isn't done with winter, yet. Monday, March 20 is the first day of Spring, and in true Tahoe fashion, rain is in the forecast.

A fast moving shortwave will move through the Pacific Northwest Wednesday, bringing wind and a chance of rain to Lake Tahoe. Three small weather systems are lined up to pass over the Sierra Nevada.

Here is the forecast from the National Weather Service:

Tonight - Isolated showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 35. Southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

The Sierra Avalanche Center is reporting a large (D4) slide that appeared to run during the rain on Monday, February 21 in Desolation Wilderness on the slopes of Mt. Tallac above Lake Tahoe.

The 1,000 foot long avalanche named Corkscrew Slide Path, started at an elevation of 6800 feet and was approximately 150 feet wide. Trees up to approximately 6 inches in diameter were visible within the debris at the end of the slide.

Rivers have flooded, the lake is filling and snow is covering the slopes because of the several atmospheric rivers to hit Lake Tahoe this winter. To celebrate the epic season, the Beverage Department team at Harrah’s and Harveys Lake Tahoe concocted a cocktail to honor and celebrate the winter.

The "Atmospheric River" drink "blends the frosty peaks of the Sierra Nevada with the stunning shades of blue found only at Lake Tahoe," said John Packer of Harrah’s and Harveys Lake Tahoe.

LAKE TAHOE, CALIF., - The Northstar Mountain Master Plan was approved Tuesday by the Placer County Board of Supervisors, providing a roadmap for the next 20 years for the North Lake Tahoe resort.

The two feet of snow added to the slopes at Kirkwood Ski Resort this week has pushed their snowpack to 508 inches as of Sunday, and there is still lots more to come.

With another month of winter, Kirkwood still has time to add many more inches to their snowpack, as do all other Sierra Nevada Resorts. Kirkwood had 504 inches of snow in 2012, the last strong winter experienced in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. March is historically a month where snow can reach the same, or higher, levels than January and February.

Roadwork to clear mud and rocks from Highway 50 continues on both sides of the state line of Lake Tahoe with no estimated reopening time released by either transportation agency.

Last week, five boulders fell onto the highway near Logan Creek on the east side of the lake, prompting Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) to close the road due to an unstable hillside. Progress is being made on the stretch of road that connects South Lake Tahoe to Carson City according to Meg Ragonese of NDOT. She said the "monolithic-size boulders" are being removed.

Two boulders came down onto Highway 50 in the Logan Creek area of Lake Tahoe again on Tuesday, close to the same exact area as Monday's large boulder slide.

No vehicles were involved and there were no injuries.

With the ground saturated by a combination of rain and snow, a vehicle-sized boulder slid into a portion of the eastbound lane of Highway 50 at Lake Tahoe near Logan Creek on Monday morning causing some traffic delays.

No injuries were reported in the incident which happened some time after 7:00 a.m. The eastbound lane was partially blocked by the slide, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.

The Lake Tahoe Unified School District trustees will continue their discussion into the future use of the old Al Tahoe school site during a study session prior to their normal board meeting Tuesday.

While climate can be an important factor controlling lake temperatures, in many lakes, water temperatures are responding differently than air temperatures. Through decades of climate and water temperature data from Sierra Nevada, Dr. Steve Sadro was able to illustrate the magnitude of warming taking place and demonstrate the role of winter snow-pack in regulating lake temperatures. Sadro and his findings will be featured at the next UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) discussion on February 9. The program will begin at 6:00 p.m. with refreshments and no-host bar from 5:30 p.m.

Author and Sierra Nevada native, Gary Noy, returns to South Lake Tahoe to present an illustrated lecture on historical material from his newest book "Gold Rush Stories: 49 Tales of Seekers, Scoundrels, Loss and Luck" on Saturday, April 29 at 3:00 p.m.

His book features forty-nine unique, interesting and sometimes hard to believe, stories from the California Gold Rush.

Not only is he a great author, Gary is a phenomenal storyteller. You won't want to miss this history lesson. A book sale and signing will follow the program.

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The conversation has started on what to do at the former site of Al Tahoe Elementary School after the passage of Proposition 51 in the November election which will create $9 billion in funding for the state's schools. During a study session at the Lake Tahoe Unified School District's (LTUSD) Board of Trustee meeting Tuesday, staff and trustees starting looking the future function of the school that closed in 2004 due to declining enrollment.

As 2017 started, the Lake Tahoe basin and the rest of the Sierra Nevada were looking at a less than spectacular snowpack.

Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, measured the snow at Phillips (near Sierra-at-Tahoe) on January 3 and found the snow water equivalent of the snow at that location at 53 percent of normal.

Today, the Sierra snowpack is between 195-205 percent of average and the water content is 163 percent of average.

With nine to 15-feet of snow falling in upper elevations, and up to eight feet at lake level, things have turned around.

Good morning skiers and riders, and if you're visiting, welcome to Lake Tahoe!

Today is Wednesday, January 11.

A BLIZZARD WARNING IS IN EFFECT TODAY THROUGH 10:00AM THIS MORNING… FOLLOWED BY A WINTER STORM WARNING POSTED TODAY THRU THURSDAY MORNING… AVALANCHE WARNING POSTED TODAY THROUGH 5:00PM.

Snow. You know, that frozen, fluffy white stuff that covers the mountains around Lake Tahoe? With less than stellar snowpacks over the last several winters, many might have forgotten what snowstorms really could look like in South Lake Tahoe. This week, however, memories are being refreshed with a blizzard impacting the Sierra Nevada that could bring up to seven feet of snow to the lake.

If you or your child go to school in Lake Tahoe, consider yourself off for the day.

Lake Tahoe Unified School District has canceled school on Tuesday, January 10 due to blizzard conditions, extending the two-week break another day.

Lake Tahoe Community College is closed. Sierra Nevada College is closed.

Both Douglas County Schools at the lake, Zephyr Cove Elementary and George Whittell High School are closed. Jacks Valley Elementary School in the valley is closed due to flooding but all other County schools are open.

South Lake Tahoe, Calif. - The atmospheric river heading to Lake Tahoe will produce a period of intense rainfall with snow levels as high as 9000 feet early Sunday morning to Monday morning. The National Weather Service says to expect 6"-12" of rain around the Lake Tahoe basin, the Carson Range and the foothills of Carson City and Reno.

Lower elevations in Western Nevada will see 2"-4" of rain during this time frame.

South Lake Tahoe, Calif. - The weekend's heavy snowfall didn't do enough to bring good news during Tuesday's monthly manual snowpack survey at Phillips Station.

Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, led a media tour on January 3, 2017 to their normal spot near the turnoff to Sierra-at-Tahoe and found a snow water equivalent of six inches, which is 5.3 inches less that the average early-January total of 11.3 inches, 53 percent of normal.