conditions

If weather conditions hold, about 10 acres will be burned in a prescribed fire today near Mewuk Drive in the South Lake Tahoe area, the U.S. Forest Service reports. Five acres are up for burning across the South Shore near Tahoe City.

Rain and high elevation snow are expected today along with breezy conditions. A Lake Wind Advisory is in effect through 11 p.m. Thursday. Winds will be out of the southwest, 10 to 15 mph with gusts to 30 mph this morning and then increasing this afternoon with gusts to 40 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Several Lake Tahoe area nonprofit organizations and agencies will receive financial aid this year through partnerships announced Monday by the United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra.

The partnerships are aimed to address issues identified in each of the Lake Tahoe area communities, said Karen Barsell, CEO and president of United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency on Thursday announced the 2012 Best in the Basin award winners and will recognize the recipients March 27 at the TRPA governing board meeting.

This is the 23rd year for the program that recognizes Lake Tahoe area projects for demonstrating exceptional planning, design, and compatibility with the Lake Tahoe environment. Local professionals in the fields of landscaping, planning, engineering, water quality, and resource management judged each category. A reception for all Best in Basin winners and judges will follow the awards ceremony.

U.S. Forest Service fuels management crews continue prescribed fire operations near Spooner Summit beginning Monday. Crews expect to burn approximately 40 acres. In addition, operations begin Monday on Tahoe Mountain near Dundee Circle. Crews expect to burn approximately six acres. Operations in both locations may continue through the week, weather and conditions permitting.

With up to 26 inches of snow falling earlier this week around Lake Tahoe area ski resorts, officials at Heavenly Mountain Resort report solid conditions for March ski and boarding.

"With the US Freestyle National Championships March 29-31, and Shaun White’s High Roller Hold ‘Em April 6, followed by the Gunbarrel 25 on April 7, it’s going to be an amazing spring," said Heavenly spokesman Russ Pecoraro.

Two prescribed fires are planned Wednesday around South Lake Tahoe near the intersection of Pioneer Trail and Al Tahoe Boulevard and along a portion of the Angora fire burn area, the U.S. Forest Service announced.

Fuels management crews expect to burn about nine acres, weather permitting. In addition, operations will begin in the Angora Fire area near Pyramid Circle. Crews expect to burn approximately 10 to 15 acres, weather permitting. Operations in both locations will continue through the week as conditions allow.

KIRKWOOD - Hero conditions would have been nice, but they weren't mandatory. The only things mandatory Wednesday were massive airs and knees of rubber to ride out the boilerplate landings. That'...

The U.S. Forest Service reports the Glenbrook area along the east shore of Lake Tahoe is getting some of the smoke from two days of a prescribed burn operation in the hills above.

Crews burned around 100 acres Tuesday with about 35 acres remaining today. Much of the smoke from Tuesday's burning wound up in Carson City and Carson Valley. Today, the smoke is instead making its way across the east shore of the lake, the Forest Service reports.

Smoky conditions are expected to last through Wednesday into the night with anticipated clearing Thursday.

About 135 acres on Lake Tahoe's east shore above Glenbrook is slated for prescribed burning that will begin Tuesday, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Fire and fuel crews with the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the Forest Service will continue the burn through next week as weather allows.

The U.S. Forest Service has a two-acre prescribed fire plan for the north shore of Lake Tahoe set for Tuesday. The area planned is Regency Way in Kings Beach. Below is a news release on the details as well as the overall multi-jurisdictional fuel reduction plan outline.

The mogul course was hard. Frozen rain mixed with the snow, but the unforgiving conditions didn't stop Heavenly skiers from climbing the podium seven times.The Heavenly Ski Foundation team hoste...

The new Lake Tahoe Community College Nordic Center is scheduled to open Friday, March 1. Season passes will go on sale Friday.
“We believe an additional two weeks of winter will potentially improve course conditions offering the best experience for participants,” said Megan Waskiewicz, LTCC Community Education program director, in a news release.
Nordic Center passes are available online at www.ltcc.edu/communityeducation, in person at the LTCC campus CONNECT Community Education office (B107A) on, Mon-Fri 10-2p.m., or over the phone at 530-541-4660 ext. 717.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada, Northern California, Lake Tahoe and the Sierra. This report is for the week of Feb. 6-12.

Prescribed fires on Spooner Summit east of Lake Tahoe are planned for Tuesday through the end of next week, U.S. Forest Service officials said Friday.
Fuel management crews will burn about 10 acres each day, weather permitting with smoke visible along Highway 50.
Below is a news release and 10-year fire reduction plan from the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the U.S. Forest Service.

Big mountain freeride action meets ski and boarder-cross strategy through Sunday in a mad-dash race for cash, as Kirkwood Mountain Resort hosts the first stop on the Rahlves’ Banzai Tour, presented by Bank of the West. Taking place at four Lake Tahoe resorts, it’s head–to-head action, four at a time, top to bottom, down a wide open course over natural terrain and snow conditions. This is the ultimate test of ski and riding skills.

While tragic in nature as to what happened at the Globe event ( I can actually relate to what the parents are going through having lost one of my own) the lawsuits will likely begin. Doesn’t matter who, if anyone, is at fault you can bet there'll probably be one.

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The 2015-2017 X Games could take place at Lake Tahoe. ESPN, which owns the X Games franchise, announced qualified entities representing cities and Lake Tahoe was listed among the eligible destinations. Finalists will be determined by April 2013 and host cities will be announced by the end of 2013, according to a news release.

With more than 260 inches of snow recorded and entering Lake Tahoe and the Sierra's snowiest months of the season, Kirkwood Mountain Resort is boasting one of the deepest snow packs with the promise of plenty of powder days to come.

The Rahlves’ Banzai Tour hosted this winter at several Lake Tahoe resorts has a new sponsor. Bank of the West has signed on as the presenting sponsor of the downhill ski and snowboard event created by Daron Rahlves, considered among the most decorated American downhill and Super G skier in U.S. history. The tour spans four weekends from Feb. 2 – March 10 at four of Lake Tahoe resorts.

On the question of whether the Homewood Mountain Ski Area Resort, a ski area on Lake Tahoe’s West Shore, can be revitalized, the U.S. District Court validated all of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s environmental findings in the decision on the Sierra Club’s lawsuit challenging the project. The court remanded the case back to TRPA on one very limited issue concerning the adequacy of the economic analysis related to one of the alternatives studied, TRPA officials said.

With Lake Tahoe having one of its heaviest early snow starts in recent memory, Heavenly Mountain Resort, Northstar California Resort and Kirkwood Mountain Resort have a broad offering of learning opportunities for those who want to improve their skiing and riding skills this winter.

A low pressure system over California will bring some snow to the Sierra and Lake Tahoe Basin beginning Sunday morning, the National Weather Service in Reno reports.

Up to 6 inches of snow is possible along the Sierra crest near the Lake Tahoe Basin with a few inches at lake level and higher accumulations amounts expected across Mono County.

A tree thinning and fuels reduction project on about 100 acres in the Upper Echo Lakes area and portions of a roadless area could begin this year, according to a decision by the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

The project would take up to six years to complete and includes the removal of trees up to 16 inches in diameter, which would be collected, put into piles and either burned or made available for firewood. There is a possibility of brief closures of areas adjacent to the Pacific Crest Trail, according to the Forest Service.

The new year arrives with mountain conditions far different than a year ago, with the all-important snowpack that provides the bulk of water supplies for western Nevada at near twice-normal levels.

On Monday, the Truckee River Basin’s snowpack was measured at 192 percent of normal for the date, with the Lake Tahoe Basin at 161 percent. That’s compared to 18 and 11 percent for those two places as recorded on Dec. 31, 2011.