Weather experts gather at Tahoe

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 9:06 a.m.

Progress made in weather forecasting could impact the guesses made concerning winter storms that hit the Reno-Tahoe area, experts agreed Wednesday.

"This will impact the Lake Tahoe and Reno areas in how we look at the storms coming in," said Steve Brown, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service's Reno office.

Brown referred to recent studies of the low-level jet stream during major winter storms of 1997-98, when the El Nino weather phenomenon brought damaging flooding to the West Coast.

Scientist Marty Ralph from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of several speakers at the seventh annual Operation Sierra Storm meteorological conference, discussed the research that took him by airplane into the heart of savage storms that struck the region that winter.

By flying into the storm before it hit the coast and dropping remote sensors into the clouds, Ralph and colleagues were able t

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