Snow ruins spring break, saves skiing, dry foliage

Carson High School senior Julianna Powell and her friends had a plan for spring break.

"We realized we'd just been sitting around a lot," she said. "So we decided we would go on a series of hikes and things to get in shape before we had to go back to school."

But Mother Nature had different plans. After a mild start to the week, cold temperatures moved in Wednesday, followed by snow flurries Thursday and Friday.

"I was really disappointed," said Julianna, 17. "Because it's cold, we can't really do what we planned."

Today is expected to remain cool, with a slight chance of snow.

"It looks like we're still going to have a lot of moisture, and there's going to be some instability," said Edan Lindaman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "There could be some snow, but mostly at the higher elevations. We're not expecting much in the way of accumulation."

While the snow was a misfortune for some spring break revelers, it was a welcome sight at Diamond Peak Ski Resort in Incline Village.

"We've gotten 3-4 inches so far," spokeswoman Barb Collier said Friday morning. "And it's supposed to continue on through the day."

After a mostly dry winter, Collier said, the spring snow will get the resort through its final weekend before its Sunday closing date.

"It's really good," Collier said. "We'll have fresh snow for the people coming this weekend. With the warmer temperatures, even with the last couple of storms it's melted away. This has really saved us for the last weekend."

Today's high is expected to reach 53 degrees, with a north wind between 10 and 15 mph.

However, temperatures should increase next week, with a forecast high of 59 degrees on Sunday and into the 60s and 70s as the week goes on.

"We're probably going to be blustery next week," Lindaman said. "It's going to be a little more mild, but we're still going to see some clouds and some chance for showers."

She said it has been a typical spring thus far.

"Last year, we had snow coming through until Memorial Day. We kind of sneak into spring and summer. We're going to have this system until we get into summer, when it will just be warm and sunny."

Julianna said that for students, it's hard to get excited about warm weather on the horizon when it coincides with a return to classes.

"We can't even be happy about it," she said.