Recreational Weather Report for Mammoth Mountain & the Eastern Sierra

January 19th, 2022 @ 4 PM Update

Mammoth Mountain on Hill Forecast for 9000 feet: If you’re going to be out on Thursday expect sunny skies with highs in the low to mid-40s from Canyon Lodge up to Main Lodge. Winds will be out of the northeast wind 5 to 10 MPH becoming northwest in the afternoon. Over the mid and upper mountain, the NE winds could gust as high as 30 MPH to 40 MPH.

For Friday expect sunny skies with highs back into the upper 20s to low 30s. From Canyon to Main expect Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph increasing during the afternoon hours.

Over the mid and upper mountain, it will be very windy, with northeast winds 25 to 35 MPH increasing to 45 to 55 MPH in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 75+ MPH.

Lower Elevations: Expect clear skies with light to calm winds and day times highs in the 40s from Mammoth Lakes to Crowley Lake. Down in Bishop and Round Valleys, daytime highs will be in the mid to upper 50s. Winds will be under 10 MPH for these areas.

For the weekend expect more NE winds on Saturday for the higher elevations along with highs in the 20s. Sunday expect the winds to back off to light and be out of the SW with highs popping up 10 degrees or so.
 

Longer Range Fantasy Outlook: Taking a look at the longer-range out around day 11 it appears there is a pattern change taking place.

Both the EPS and the GEFS the last couple of days have been on board with moisture moving into the region the very last 2 days of January and into mid-February. More than likely snowfall will hold off until February is my guess.

The GEFS (below) has been showing around 5 inches of water for the Mammoth area, but this model run has backed off on those amounts into mid-month. It does keep the action going beyond what the EPS shows.

Here is the EPS run from yesterday. (this one updates every 72 hours) It’s gone from dry the last run back to what we saw before and that is wet. This run has 9+ inches of water for the sierra crest around Mammoth Mountain.

Here is the EPS in Snowfall Amounts