Snowstorm closes roads, ski resorts in Sierra Nevada

A snowstorm that meteorologists called the “worst” has roared through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, closing a long stretch of Interstate 80 in Northern California, forcing ski resorts to close and leaving thousands of homes without power. .

National Weather Service meteorologist William Churchill said Saturday that more than 3 meters of snow is expected to fall in high elevations, causing “life-threatening concerns” for residents near Lake Tahoe and hampering major east-west highways of passage.

“It was a snowstorm,” said Dubravka Tomasin, who has lived in Truckee, Calif., for more than a decade. “It’s so painful.”

Kyle Frankland, an experienced snowplow driver, said several parts of his equipment broke while he was clearing wet snow from beneath piles of powder.

“I’ve been in Truckee 44 years. It’s been a pretty good storm,” Frankland said. “It’s not record-breaking by any means, but it’s a good storm.”

Churchill said snowfall totals on Sunday night would range from 1.5 to 3.6 meters, with the highest accumulations above 1,500 meters above sea level. Low altitude areas were flooded by heavy rains.

He called the storm “particularly an extreme blizzard in the Sierra Nevada and other parts of Nevada, even extending into parts of Utah and western Colorado.” But he said he didn’t expect the record to be broken.

“It’s certainly the worst in terms of snowfall totals and winds,” Churchill said. “It doesn’t get much worse than this.”

A second, weaker storm is expected to bring 0.3 to 0.6 meters of snow to the area Monday through Wednesday next week, according to the National Weather Service office in Sacramento.

Near Lake Tahoe, Thomas Petkanas, a bartender at Alibi Ale Works in Incline Village, Nevada, said that by noon Saturday, about 1 meter of snow had fallen. Customers shook off the snow when they arrived at the brewpub and restaurant, he said.

“It’s snowing hard outside, it’s windy, and about half the town is without power,” Petkanas said by phone. “We’re one of the few locations open today.”

Adele Atticus said her husband spent the morning clearing his driveway while she worried about whether she could open a consignment clothing store in Truckee. She said Saturday is usually the busiest day of the week.

“I would say just knowing whether we were going to open was probably the biggest stressor,” Atticus said. “I thought I’d come here and check out the store.”

Earlier, the weather service warned that the heavy snow was causing “extremely dangerous or even impossible” driving conditions, with wind gusts in the high mountains exceeding 160 kilometers per hour.

The weather service said avalanche danger was “high to extreme” in backcountry areas throughout the central mountains and greater Lake Tahoe area as of Sunday evening.

California authorities on Friday closed 160 kilometers of Interstate 80, the main route between Reno and Sacramento, due to “spin, high winds and low visibility.” It’s unclear when the highway will reopen from the California-Nevada border west of Reno to near California’s Emigrant Gap.

Traffic east of the mountains is dangerous, with Caltrans citing “multiple spins and collisions” and “whiteout conditions” as it closes traffic from near Bishop in Owens Valley to Bridge north of Mono Lake 145 kilometers of US 395 in Porter.

Pacific Gas & Electric reported that about 7,468 California homes and businesses were without power as of 5:56 p.m. NV Energy reported that about 1,500 customers were without power in parts of northern Nevada, including Incline Village and Reno.

The weather service in Southern Nevada issued a wind gust warning on Saturday, with wind speeds reaching 145 kilometers per hour. NV Energy reported that nearly 29,000 customers were without power in and around Las Vegas on Saturday, but that number had dropped to about 16,000 by the evening.

A tornado in Madera County, Calif., destroyed an elementary school Friday afternoon, said Andy Bollenbacher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford.

Some ski resorts closed Friday and began digging Saturday with an eye toward reopening Sunday.

Palisades Tahoe, the largest resort on Tahoe’s north end and site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, closed all lifts Saturday due to snow, high winds and low visibility.

Other areas closed Saturday include Sugar Bowl, Boreal and Sierra. Tianshan Resort plans to open later, but with limited operations.

Storms began moving through the area Thursday. A blizzard warning covered 480 kilometers of mountainous terrain on Sunday morning.

Some skiers rushed to the mountain ahead of the storm.

Daniel Lavely, an avid skier who works at a Reno-area home/building supply store, is not one of them. He said Friday that he wouldn’t consider using his season pass to drive an hour to ski at a Lake Tahoe resort because of the high winds.

But he said most of his customers Friday seemed to think the storm wouldn’t be as severe as expected.

“Someone asked me for a shovel,” Ravelli said. “No one asked me about the snowblower, we sold out of it during the last storm about two weeks ago.”

Meteorologists predict that by the weekend, snowfall amounts of up to 3 meters could fall in the mountains around Lake Tahoe, 0.9 to 1.8 meters in lakeshore communities, and more than 10 feet in valleys along the eastern Sierra Nevada front, including Reno. 30 cm. .

Yosemite National Park is closed Friday. Officials said the center will be closed until at least noon Sunday.