Strong pressure and thermal gradients tighten across eastern Sierra following cold-frontal (Inside Slider) passage across the region. The result was strong east-northeast ridge winds across the Sierra Crest and areas east in and around Lake Tahoe.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS REV wrote it up.
Strong pressure and thermal gradients tighten across eastern Sierra following cold-frontal (Inside Slider) passage across the region. The result was strong east-northeast ridge winds across the Sierra Crest and areas east in and around Lake Tahoe. Some ridgetop wind gusts exceeded 90-100 mph.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Reno, NV wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 2, 12:46 PM PST, 7 hours 14 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Reno NV
1246 PM PST Wed Feb 2 2022
.SYNOPSIS...
Cold and windy conditions continue through this evening with
poor boating conditions on Lake Tahoe. Otherwise, benign and
dry weather will persist as a blocking ridge continues to
deflect Pacific storms track away from the Sierra and western
Nevada through at least the first half of the month.
&&
.DISCUSSION...
Ridge winds continue to gust from the northeast above 90 mph
across the Sierra crest this afternoon as thermal and pressure
gradients squeeze increased momentum over higher elevations above
8000 feet. This same forcing will assist with gusty conditions
over Lake Tahoe into the evening with choppy conditions still
posing a hazard to boaters operating on the lake into the evening.
Wind induced waves ranging 2-4 feet will gradually decrease to
less than a couple feet later in the evening with eastern lake
shores seeing nothing more that wavelets by this time.
But the pressure gradients east of the Sierra crest will gradually
loosen through Wednesday-Thursday as the coldest air with high
pressure recedes east and south of the region. With winds over the
eastern Sierra tapering off through the latter half of the week,
higher elevation recreation activities and aviation impacts will
subside into the weekend.
As high pressure once again builds greater influence into the
western US, dry conditions will continue into next week.
Temperatures will gradually rebound over western Nevada with lower
valley areas below 5000’ benefiting most from high pressure
nudging east and south into the region. Those areas should see
daytime high temperature values rising into a more seasonal value
through the weekend. But with the drier conditions and minimal
mixing in the surface layer, strengthening overnight inversions
will ensure lower morning lows remain. Sierra valleys may not see
the same warming as lower valley areas of western NV. Stronger
inversions and reduced daytime mixing across some higher Sierra
valleys from Lassen to Mono counties will have colder overnight
temperatures persisting 5-10 degrees below seasonal average.
For those still wishing and hoping for rain/snow over the region,
a zero chance remains over the course of the next 10-12 days.
Ensemble model guidance shows the same blocking pattern holding
over the eastern Pacific for at least the next couple weeks with
high pressure dominating the region. With the exception of the
occasional back-door cold front dropping some weak forcing into
the Great Basin and boosting easterly winds along the Sierra
crest, the region will remain high and dry through the extended
forecast period. Even Punxsutawney Phil won’t be able to summon
any real weather changes for the foreseeable future.
-Amanda
.AVIATION...
* Strong NE winds continue over the Sierra crest with FL100 winds
sustained 50-70 kts. This is bringing turbulence and mountain wave
activity along and west of the Sierra crest. Wind shear is
possible for KTVL and KTRK through this evening.
* Winds will gradually decrease overnight and turn more northerly,
but remain breezy at and above mountain ridge level. Easterly flow
returns into Thursday, but will be lighter.
* Otherwise, widespread VFR conditions with passing high level
clouds.
-Dawn
&&
.REV Watches/Warnings/Advisories...
NV...Lake Wind Advisory until 10 PM PST this evening for Lake Tahoe
in NVZ002.
CA...Lake Wind Advisory until 10 PM PST this evening for Lake Tahoe
in CAZ072.
&&
For more information from the National Weather Service visit...
http://weather.gov/renoThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Mesonet station Summit/Ward Mt-Alpine, CA (SUMAM-Tahoe) reported a NE wind gust of 108 mph at 08:00 PM (LST), Feb 2.
Mesonet station Mammouth Summit, CA-Mono, CA (MTH03-Mammouth) reported NNE wind gusts of 111 mph at 8:00 PM (LST), Feb 2.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in California, February 2022
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 996494, 996495.