A powerful blizzard that has dumped huge amounts of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains will continue to slam the region through Sunday, bringing more snow and damaging winds as a second “weaker” system is expected to bring additional snow Monday.
The dayslong storm that has caused treacherous white-out conditions due to its hefty wind gusts has shuttered national parks, ski resorts and parts of a major California interstate.
Up to 10 feet of snow was expected to slam high-elevation areas, creating a “life-threatening concern” for Lake Tahoe residents, National Weather Service meteorologist William Churchill said.
The region should see between five and 12 feet of snow by Sunday evening, with areas at higher elevations at a greater risk of more snow, while lower elevations will likely be flooded with heavy rain, Churchill told the Associated Press.
Even in areas where the snow isn’t as heavy, there are still wind gusts of over 50 mph impacting millions of people from California to Colorado.
While the brunt of the storm is expected to pass by Sunday evening, a second “weaker” system is forecast to move through the region Monday through Wednesday, the National Weather Service in Sacramento warned.
“An additional 1 to 2 feet of snow is currently forecast to fall, which may hamper blizzard recovery efforts in the mounts,” the NWS said.
Winter alerts are in effect in nine states in the West as “extremely heavy snow rates” of 2 to 6 inches per hour were forecast by the NWS. Snowfall totals could reach up to 12 feet by Wednesday following the second expected storm coming at the start of the work week.
About 42 inches of snow were recorded in Soda Springs, California, while 45 inches were measured in Truckee, California, as of Saturday afternoon.
The Sierra Snow Lab at UC Berkeley recorded 39.8 inches of snow on Saturday, sharing updates on X about the extremely dangerous storm that has left the lab and its neighbors without power.
The weather service has also warned of “high to extreme” avalanche danger in the Central Sierra and Greater Lake Tahoe area through Sunday afternoon.
Robust winds that will “likely down trees and power lines” are expected throughout the region as well, with wind gusts reaching up to 75 mph, the NWS said.
California authorities shut down 100 miles of Interstate 80 on Friday as the snowstorm bore down on the Sierra Nevada.
It’s unclear when the freeway would reopen from the California-Nevada border west of Reno to near Emigrant Gap, California.
By Sunday morning, Pacific Gas & Electric had restored power to all but about 7,000 California customers, while NV Energy had only about 1,000 homes and businesses remaining without power.
Several ski resorts like Palisades Tahoe, Sugar Bowl, Boreal and Sierra were closed on Friday and Saturday with the hopes of digging themselves out and reopening for Sunday.
“We will be digging out for the foreseeable future,” officials at Palisades Tahoe, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, said on the resort’s blog.
Yosemite National Park also closed Friday and was expected to remain shuttered until at least noon on Sunday.
With Post wires.
