Blizzard conditions continue in Sierra as snow reaches low elevations in California
Blizzard conditions continued Tuesday in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, with a major highway closed to traffic and more heavy snow expected to fall through early Wednesday.
National Weather Service forecasts show about 3 to 4 feet of snow expected between Tuesday and Wednesday near summit levels in the greater Lake Tahoe area. Snowfall could peak at a rate of about 2 to 3 inches per hour by midday Tuesday, forecasters said.
Interstate 80 as of 8 a.m. remained closed between Applegate and the Nevada state line, as it had been most of Monday.
Highway 50, closed Monday between Echo Summit and Meyers, reopened overnight according to Caltrans, but mountain travel remains highly discouraged by the weather service and transportation officials due to dangerous conditions.
Caltrans as of 11:30 a.m. was holding Highway 50 traffic in both directions at Echo Summit due to avalanche control work, with no estimated time of reopening.
Authorities were also urging motorists not to attempt to bypass highway closures.
“It’s come to our attention there has been an increasing number of drivers using GPS to find their way around the I-80 closures,” the Placer County Sheriff’s Office tweeted Monday evening. “Closures are in place for your safety — backroads are not any safer, as evidenced by the spin-outs and crashes that have already occurred today.”
Amid a very cold winter storm system, feet of snow were forecast to fall at elevations as low as 2,000 feet, with significant amounts possible above 1,000 feet and light snow possible above 500 feet, including the foothills and portions of the northern Sacramento Valley such as Redding.
Snow totals from Monday were still being reported, but the weather service’s Sacramento office said Kingvale, which straddles Placer and Nevada counties at an elevation of about 6,100 feet, recorded 2 feet of snow in 24 hours.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. reported more than 50,000 homes and businesses without power as of noon Tuesday across Northern California, including more than 12,000 in Nevada County and more than 2,500 in Placer County.
Tahoe ski resorts closed by heavy snow
Most Tahoe-area ski resorts were closed Tuesday due to dangerous conditions, including Palisades Tahoe, Northstar, Kirkwood, Sierra-at-Tahoe and Sugar Bowl, those resorts announced in social media posts. Soda Springs said on its website it has suspended operations through at least Thursday.
Palisades in a blog post said it received more than 3 feet of snow from Monday morning through Tuesday morning, putting the property above 500 inches of snow this season, including 10 feet of snow in February.
One of the only resorts to stay open, Heavenly Mountain near South Lake Tahoe, began operations at 11 a.m. Tuesday, with 10 of its 27 lifts open, according to its website and Facebook page. But the resort in tweets around 1 p.m. warned guests that shuttles to and from the ski resort are closed on the Nevada side and suspended on the California side “due to weather and visibility” concerns.
‘This is crazy’: Snow falls down to Sierra foothills
Claudia Booth owns and tends to six horses at her property on Placer Hills Road, just south of Colfax.
She fed them extra hay Tuesday morning to keep their stomachs warm.
“This is crazy,” Booth said. “Everybody says, ‘Oh, it’s so pretty.’ No no no, not when you’ve got this … It’s not so easy when you’ve got livestock.”
The weather service recorded between 14 and 17 inches of snow for the 48-hour window ending at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in parts of Grass Valley and Nevada City, which are less than 15 miles from Colfax and at about the same elevation.
“Usually this low, it snows and then it’s melted by the evening,” Booth said. “Every few years we get a blizzard, which this is.”
Booth echoed weather and travel officials’ advice, to avoid all non-essential road travel.
“They’re telling people, ‘Hey, don’t come up.’ Gas stations are closing, stores are closing. Roads are a mess. I won’t even drive on ‘em.”
Rain and wind continue in Sacramento
In Sacramento, rain showers were expected to continue throughout Tuesday, with afternoon thunderstorms possible. About a half-inch of rain could fall, absent thunderstorms. Gusts were forecast to kick up to about 30 mph.
A high of about 50 degrees will cool to just below freezing Tuesday night, according to the weather service, with a forecast low in Sacramento of 31 degrees.
Rain near Sacramento is expected to clear out by Wednesday, while frigid temperatures continue the rest of this week including near-freezing nighttime lows. Showers may return by Saturday, weather service forecasts show.
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 11:50 AM.
