Good for drought..

Winter storm dumping several feet of snow at Tahoe ski resorts

By Evan Sernoffsky

A  fresh round of rain may mean a dusting of flakes at the highest peaks around the San Francisco bay region.

But that’s nothing compared with the heavy snow falling in the Sierra, where a major winter storm is dumping several feet of fresh powder on Tahoe’s ski resorts and making for treacherous driving conditions over mountain passes.

Some areas of the Sierra were reporting 2 or more feet of snow above 6,700 feet, and up to 4 feet could fall by the time the system passes, according to the National Weather Service.

Heavenly, Northstar, and Kirkwood all reported getting roughly 3 feet of fresh snow between 7 a.m. Monday and 7 a.m. Tuesday. Sierra at Tahoe, Boreal and Diamond Peak all reported about a foot of flakes in that time.

Snow levels were hovering between 6,200 and 7,000 feet. At lake level - roughly 6,000 feet — mostly rain was falling, and a few hundred feet higher, that rain was mixing with snow, making for slushy conditions.

The back-to-back days of rain brought more than 2 inches of rain to San Francisco — with 1 ¼ inches falling in a 24-hour span that started at 4:30 a.m. Monday.