Snowfall has been reported around the Lake Tahoe region for the first time for several ski areas as a major stormfront hit the Californian Coast, bringing torrential rain to lower elevations.
It's less than two months since Mammoth Mountain closed after one of its longest ever seasons, running well into August, following huge snowfalls in the state last winter.
Mt Rose, pictured above, is often among the first to open in California and North America in early November most years.
There's currently some nervousness about how sinter 23-24 will play out for snowfall on north America's West Coast with a strong El Niño climate pattern forming which reflects unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast after three successive 'La Niña winters'.
These typically deliver warmer, wetter conditions although nothing is ever certain and some El Niño winters were still cold enough for the above average precipitation to fall as huge amounts of snow.
Although last winter's repeating huge snowfalls brought stunning amounts of snowfall, they also caused lots of disruption, hitting business at key points of the season, so some Californian ski areas might be happy with a little less falling this winter, a little less often.