A number of Californian ski areas have announced they won't open today as a massive storm which began on Thursday continues to intensify.
America's National Weather service has issued a severe weather warning predicting up to 12 feet of snowfall by the end of Sunday, accompanied by winds as strong as 100 mph.
Most ski areas in the state say they'll close today or may have very limited operations after a late
opening.
"Due to the large snowfall totals we are expecting (up to 50 inches in the Palisades base area in the next 24 hours) and the high rate of snowfall (up to 5 inches per hour) we have made the decision to keep Alpine closed for tomorrow, Friday, March 1st," a statement from The Palisades explained.
The storm is the latest in a series that started in February from the Pacific. February snowfall totals were more than 11 feet at resorts like Mammoth.
The snowfall has arrived after a very warm and dry end to 2023 which saw limited terrain open for the key Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays in California and across much of North America. This was blamed on a 'very strong El Nino system' from the Pacific which was predicted to last all season and write off the entire season for snowfall. However, that has not been the case for the past 5-6 weeks in most parts of the continent.
The Pacific Northwest corner had continued to miss out until recently but it too has had good, if not so huge, snowfalls over the past week or two.
Northstar is pictured on Thursday.
