Glad you stayed home? See major traffic jam on road to Tahoe, slopes like ‘snow globes’
Traffic on I-80 heading toward Lake Tahoe was nearly at a standstill Thursday night, aerial video shows, as CHP urged travelers heading over Donner Summit to be patient and be prepared for delays.
“Ensure your vehicle is winter-ready, allow for extra travel time, and stay alert for changing conditions,” CHP Truckee posted on its Instagram page.
Chain controls were in place on Interstate 80 in both directions from Baxter to Truckee, on HIghway 267 from Northstar to Kings Beach and Highway 89 from Truckee to Tahoe City.
If travelers did make it to the slopes on Thursday, they had to contend with heavy wind gusts but not crowds, footage from Palisades Tahoe ski resort showed.
Mother Nature dumped 13 inches of fresh snowfall at Palisades Tahoe over a 24-hour period, bringing the resort’s snowfall total this season to 72 inches.
“Our slopes mirror a snow globe, and the snow is expected to intensify and bring up to another two feet by the end of this storm system,” Madison Condon, senior communications specialist at the resort, said in an email. “Today we are opening one of our most iconic chairlifts, Granite Chief, which houses some of our most challenging terrain.”
Weather conditions aren’t getting better, according to the National Weather Service, which put a winter storm warning in effect for the Greater Lake Tahoe area until 10 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024.
On Saturday, heavy snow is expected, with 9 to 15 inches expected to fall above 7,000 feet.
This story was originally published December 13, 2024 at 9:55 AM.
