By MARK McLAUGHLIN | Squaw Valley
Meghan Herbst gets much of her information right in Battle of the Weather Regimes in the October issue, but there were several factual errors in her data from the Central Sierra Snow Lab. The snowiest winter of record is not 1952, it is 1938. In 1952, 812 inches of snowfall were measured, not 816. The year 2006 did not produce the second greatest annual snowfall at the lab, 1952 did. The lab measured 426 inches of snow in 2006, not 708. Although the atmospheric influence from the ENSO event brewing in the Pacific Ocean may be strongest from January to March, it’s quite possible that the Tahoe Sierra will see snow by Thanksgiving. El Niño is not the only game in town, and skiing on that holiday is statistically not a rare event.
