California ski resorts bracing for snowfall

AccuWeather

More snowfall is in the forecast for California, prompting a winter storm warning. Ski resorts in the state are preparing to make the most of the additional snowfall on Feb. 6.

Transcript

00:00The atmospheric river that brought rain to northern California is bringing snow to the

00:04Sierra Nevada mountains and more snow is on the way later today. Joining us from Mammoth Mountain

00:10is Joni Lynch, the VP of Marketing and Sales for Mammoth Resorts. And Joni, we want to know

00:16the snowfall so far this season's been at least a little bit of a struggle at times for Mammoth

00:21Mountain. Tell us where we are today. Yeah, it's been another interesting season for us here at

00:27Mammoth. We did have great snowfall in November. In fact, over 60 inches of snow fell just in the

00:32month of November. That's almost half of our total for the season so far. Coming off of a fairly dry

00:37January, we're moving into February looking pretty good. In fact, we picked up about a foot of snow

00:42yesterday and we do have a winter storm warning in effect for the Mammoth Lakes area starting at

00:4810 a.m. today all the way through noon tomorrow. This could be a big producer for snow, maybe up

00:53to two feet here on the mountain. Yeah, one to two feet of snow absolutely good news of course

00:58not only for the ski resorts but people forget the snow in the Sierra is so critical to filling

01:03the reservoirs in California during the spring months. Now, it's also been windy at times of

01:08high winds impacted ski lifts. We've seen gusts of more than 138 miles per hour are all the trails

01:15and lifts open and by the little gesture I would assume wind's been a little bit of a problem.

01:21We have had a lot of high winds this year. It's not that unusual for the Mammoth Lakes area and for this

01:26part of the eastern Sierra but we have had some winds that have impacted our lift operations and

01:31terrain openings. Now, today so far we do have some light breezes. This storm should come with

01:36a heavy dose of wind but we're ready for it. We expect by the weekend the storm will move out and

01:41we should have perfect temperatures for a great weekend of skiing and snowboarding. And your teams

01:46are prepared for this snowfall too. What do they do to prepare for this? Always ready for big snow

01:53here in Mammoth. We get a lot of snow in certain years so we're always prepared. We have people

01:59ready. We have a lot of heavy equipment to move the snow for the parking areas. Snowcats to groom

02:04the mountain to provide a good experience. We really love this weather when it comes in and

02:10when it snows a lot it's kind of fun to be out here in in nature and battling the elements. We

02:15think it's a good time. All right, Joanie Lynch, Vice President of Marketing and Sales there for

02:20Mammoth Mountain. Thanks again for joining us this morning. Again, busy starts the season then kind

02:26of trailed off but maybe they'll get back into it. We have to get to Mammoth Mountain during one of

02:30these storms. You've got to experience the snow and the wind. I know. Let's see if we can get there. I'm sure

02:35Joanie would love to have us.

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