A Snowy Start To The New Year

The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway experienced its first snow of the year this morning. "We have plenty of people excited. We got snow this morning. So we rang in the new year with fresh snow which is amazing. Hopefully that means it’s going to bring some more throughout the year." says Madison Morgan, the Public Relations Manager for The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Starting off the new year with a snowy start is a good sign, with this year already surpassing last year’s amount of snow. "We got about four inches of snow between last night and this morning. It’s probably snowed about another inch throughout the day and it is forecasted to snow just a little bit more tonight." This time of year is pretty typical for snowfall, but heavy snowfall calls for long lines for both locals and visitors trying to escape into a below freezing temperature. "About noon we did have to close our roads because we were at capacity. Basically what that means is when we have our parking lots completely full, we just have to wait for guests to leave before they can come back down the mountain and then we can bring in some more people." Morgan says. Although the holiday season calls for longer lines, Morgan says once guests are at the top of the mountain they are free to roam the snowy grounds for as long as they’d like. If you can bare the wait it’s a great chance for both visitors to take the tram car into the wilderness of Mount San Jacinto’s State Park. "I would definitely, you know, recommend coming up to the tram to experience snow but I would anticipate the longer wait times so if you are capable and able to you know… wait those two hour periods, then I say come on in." With temperature changes affecting the valley differently each week, Morgan hopes quite the opposite. "Hopefully, it’ll stay around for a while and it’ll give a lot of people the experience to come and play in the snow. So we’re really hoping that we can keep the snowfall through March and just be a winter wonderland for everybody in Palm Springs."