Forecasters say a Pacific storm bringing strong winds and heavy snow, expected to be the strongest storm of the season, will push toward California, with possible blizzard conditions in the Sierra Nevada and up to 10 feet (3 meters) of snow in surrounding mountains over the weekend. Lake Tahoe.
The National Weather Service in Reno on Wednesday issued a blizzard warning for the mountains north of Lake Tahoe to 300 miles (482 kilometers) south of Yosemite National Park, which was in effect early Thursday until 10 a.m. Sunday .
The weather service said widespread blowing snow will create blizzard conditions, with whiteouts and near-zero visibility making travel “dangerous to impossible” from Friday to Saturday morning, when the heaviest snowfall is expected.
Towns along Lake Tahoe are expected to see winds of 2 to 4 feet (61 to 122 centimeters), with gusts of 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 meters) at the highest elevations, and gusts in excess of 100 mph (160 mph) over the Sierra Ridges. km/h). the meteorological department said. Road closures and power outages may occur.
“Do not take this storm lightly,” the Reno weather service warned.
Potential snowfall totals vary depending on the situation, but the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said there is no doubt that “March will come like a lion in the West Coast states.”
The center said Wednesday that an “impressive winter storm will hit the Cascades and Sierra Nevada, bringing blizzard conditions by the end of the week.” The Rockies are facing heavy but lighter amounts of snow, and “heavy rain is expected along the coast between San Francisco and Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, with several inches possible over the next three days.”
The chief scientist at the Nevada Summit Snow Laboratory said they could break the modern record of about 3.5 feet (1 meter) of snow set in 1989 in a single day.
“This is a very serious storm for us,” Andrew Schwartz of the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, which established the 1946 snowstorm in northwest Lake Tahoe, said Wednesday Founded in Soda Springs, California.
Kristi Anderson, a waitress at The Gateway Cafe in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., said she had filled up her gas tank and was stocking up on food and firewood.
“We had a lot of storms last year, a lot of power outages, a lot of people couldn’t go out and buy food and grocery stores didn’t have power, so we’re preparing for that,” Anderson said. “I hope there aren’t a lot of people traveling here because the road conditions are really bad.”
Others remain skeptical.
Richard Cunningham said he had heard predictions about the storm of the century before, but since he moved to Reno from Las Vegas in 1997, those predictions have not come true.
“Same story, different day,” he said Wednesday. “Sometimes it doesn’t even snow.”
But Schwartz, the Sierra Snowflake Laboratory scientist, said he has been watching computer models over the past two weeks and, if anything, he thinks the National Weather Service’s snow forecast is conservative.
“The Snow Lab predicts a total height of 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.8 meters), which is lower than what the models recommend,” he said.
That’s good news for Tahoe-area ski resorts, which started the season with light snowfall but have recently seen an increase following last year’s near-record snowfall.
Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort officials said on their website Wednesday that they were “excited at the prospect” of heavy snow but also prepared for “challenging operational impacts.” Last month, a skier at the resort was killed in an avalanche.
“It’s almost certain that the roads will be slippery, visibility will be reduced and the passes will be closed,” Palisades Tahoe spokesman Patrick Lacey said.
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