El Niño winters bring Alpine Meadows about 2% less snow than a typical winter.
Based on 14 El Niño winters since 1986: 8 of them beat Alpine Meadows's median snowfall. But El Niño winters here vary so much that there's no clear pattern. Ranks #59 of 152 Western resorts for El Niño snowfall.
Checked against a real snow station: at the Palisades Tahoe SNOTEL station, measured precipitation in El Niño winters ran −5% vs. its average (46 winters of measurements).
Snowfall each winter compared with Alpine Meadows's 40-winter average, colored by what the Pacific was doing.
El Niño La Niña Neutral
Mid-mountain, November–April. Any single winter can buck the pattern; that's why we look at averages.
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