Bryan Allegretto knows he has the power to send Lake Tahoe into full panic mode, spurring mass hotel cancellations, panic-buying at the grocery stores, and runs on gas stations with just one word.
That word? “Snowpocalypse.”
But for Allegretto, that’s not a word to throw around lightly.
“I am very cognizant of what my words can mean to people,” he says, “and I try to be very careful the way that I deliver my messages.”
Allegretto is the author and local celebrity behind Lake Tahoe’s OpenSnow forecasting site; for many, it’s the equivalent of Tahoe’s snow bible. While most forecasting sites deliver basic information like whether it’ll rain, expected high and low temperatures, and details on when storms might hit, OpenSnow makes that look like the bare minimum. Allegretto’s forecast reports on incoming storm days can easily veer into the 2,000-word-plus range, covering everything from resort-by-resort snow estimates to historical snowfall data to analyses of his previous snow estimates. It’s all in service of helping Tahoe residents and visitors know what to expect for shoveling snow and timing the perfect powder day.