Last week’s storm brought with it a couple of feet of snow to the higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada.

While in total the amount of snowfall for the year has been below average, with officials stating in early April the snowpack was the worst it’s been in seven years, last week’s snowfall brought resorts like Palisades Tahoe close to their annual average of 400 inches.

The resort’s public relations coordinator, Kat Walton, stated the resort’s 58 inches of snowfall in April were more than November, January, February, and March combined.

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In Tahoe City, the National Weather Service reported at total of 28.5 inches of snowfall for the month, compared to an average of 14.4 inches of snow. On the water, Lake Tahoe is roughly 5 feet below its legal limit of 6,229.1 feet, and is about a foot lower than at the same time last year.

“It has been a bit of a struggle snow-wise this season,” said public relations manager Alex Spychalsky. “It’s been really up and down all across the board.

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While a better-than-average month of precipitation provides needed relief from a dry 2022, May appears to starting off windy with little chance of rain or snowfall.

“It’s not looking like much precipitation through the weekend,” said Meteorologist Tony Fuentes. “They’re kind of more wind producers.”

The best chance of precipitation in the near future, said Fuentes, will likely come at the end of next week.

“There’s no heavy pickup in precipitation like we saw from some of those storms in April,” he added.

The area remains under severe drought conditions, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center.

Justin Scacco is a staff writer with the Sierra Sun. He can be reached at jscacco@sierrasun.com