Welcome to MammothSnowman.com – Snow Season 2023
Monday, April 3rd @ 7:30 AM – Good morning, it’s a cold snowy showery, and windy day out on Mammoth Mountain and in all areas above the 9000-foot level.
The good news is a taste of spring will be moving in by midweek and will last through the weekend and into next week. That will give locals a chance to get dug out as the endless snowfall will now come to an end.
To get a grasp on how much precipitation has come thru the Mammoth area this winter, DWP just reported over 100 inches of water at Mammoth Pass. That beats the 1969 record year by 15 inches of water.
When looking at the past, the snowfall inch count does not really tell the whole story. Yes, 2011 was a big high snow ratio year but that water year did not even come close to this season’s water total.
If this summer ends up being cooler, as is expected for our area, there could be Skiing and Riding into Labor Day. Above the 10,000-foot level, I would not be surprised to see the snow staying around right into next Fall and then into the next winter season. And for those looking ahead, next winter is stacking up to be an Eastern-based El Nino and those events create big snowfall years for the Mammoth Mountain area. Does anyone remember 1983 and 1998?
Mammoth Mountain Weather: Currently out on Mammoth Mountain you will find light snow showers with much cooler temperatures this morning. Up Top, there is an SW wind flow at 40 MPH with gusts to 50 MPH and a temperature of 1 degree. Wind chill values are down to -27. Down around the Main Lodge, there is a temperature of 9 degrees with an SW wind gusting into the 25 MPH – 60+ MPH range.
If you’re going to be out on Mammoth Mountain today temperatures will peaking out in the mid-teens today. Winds will be SW a 15-30 MPH with gusts in the 50-70 MPH range.
Road Conditions: 395 is closed at Mono Lake both North and South. However, they are doing daily escorts on that section of 395 at 7:30 AM and 4 PM Daily. The Mammoth Scenic Loop, Benton Crossing Road, and Upper Rock Creek Road are closed until further notice. Tioga and Sonoro Pass are closed and not expected to open until around July 4th.
Snow Surface Conditions: Full-on winter conditions out on the hill with packed powder groomers and wind buff off the packed trails. The snow gets really good once everyone is out on the hill turning up the snow. Once that happens the sugar duff starts to blow all around making for some really sweet turns.
My advice is to get out up here soon and get a taste of these winter-in-spring conditions before they end. With it being April it’s only a matter of time before the spring corn will start to develop.
With all the snow on the ground, Mammoth Mountain announced that they plan to run for winter sports at the Main Lodge through at least the month of July. If there happens to be a cooler summer they plan to run longer and hopefully beat the closing day record set in 1995 on August 14th.
Ski ya Later, Snowman…
PS: If you like email join the private newsletter list that I share with no one.
Website Author – Steve Taylor – Mammoth Snowman – Over the last 35+ years, Snowman has spent countless hours studying and learning about Mammoth Mountain Weather and Snow Conditions first hand. He has been skiing around the hill with marked ski poles since March of 1991 so he can measure the fresh snowfall amounts out on the hill.
Snowman started blogging this information back in 1990 on the old Mammoth BBS system, then the RSN Forums and then on to MammothSnowman.com in 2004 with the Video & Photo Blog report. (No YouTube back then). Facebook got added to the fold back in 2008 and then the Facebook Group in 2016.
Reports, videos, and photos from the website have been featured on both local TV Stations here in Mammoth, along with AP, Fox, ABC, CBS, and NBC News. You can learn more about the MammothSnowman.com team here.