Yes, it's a La Niņa year. No, it doesn't mean that there will be as much snow as last year. That's the message the National Weather Service is trying to make people aware of.

“I've had a number of calls from people wondering when they're going to be able to ski more than one run,” said NWS Reno meteorologist Scott McGuire. “This weather is definitely indicative of a more typical La Niņa pattern. Last year was not normal.”

Due to a high-pressure system sitting over the Pacific, California is unlikely to see much precipitation for at least a couple of weeks. Through November, the Lake Tahoe region stood at less than half of the average precipitation for that month.

Though forecasts for the next week are sunny and cold, the storm-blocking high pressure system will dissipate or move eventually and the snow will rolling in, McGuire said.

“It's hard to imagine that the overall pattern like this will persist all the way through winter,” he said.

Storms on their way south from Alaska need to connect with the Pacific Jet Stream for the Lake Tahoe Basin to get a pounding like last year's December. The high pressure system has pushed the storms inland farther north, bringing large amounts of precipitation to the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia.

An updated long-range forecast from Accuweather.com still calls for average or above average snowfall for the area for the year, but it's unclear when it will kick in.

“There's a couple of storms that look like they could bring a couple of inches to that area,” said Mike Pigot, a meteorologist with Accuweather.com. “But you're probably not looking at more than 6 inches at least until Christmas.”