New snow hits slopes at Tahoe

Monday, March 31, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

"We are getting snow showers in Tahoe Valley and Truckee right now, but there's not a lot of moisture with this system," National Weather Service forecaster Dave Pike said Sunday evening.

"We're only expecting a couple of inches in the Tahoe area and a trace in the valleys to the west of the Sierra."

The snow level started out at about 6,000 feet elevation, but was expected to drop to valley floors quickly because of an accompanying cold front.

The system comes during one of the region's driest Marchs of the century. Reno had received only a trace of snow this month before the latest system.

But the winter got off to one of its snowiest starts ever in the region when a series of storms pushed the snowpack to 200 percent of average for the season.

The weather service was calling for the latest system to taper off into isolated snow showers by this afternoon across the Reno-Tahoe area.

All Tahoe-area highways were open with no controls Sunday evening. No weather-related traffic problems were reported.

Pike said temperatures would be below seasonal norms early this week. Daytime highs will start out around 50 in the Reno area and warm up during the week.

"It's going to seem even colder because of the warm temperatures we've had lately," Pike said, referring to recent record highs of mid-70s in the Reno area.

High winds prevailed Sunday across the region but no major property damage was reported.