Power outages and ‘intense mountain snow showers’: Winter storm continues to hit region

Roughly 600 homes and businesses lost power Saturday night as a winter storm continued to pelt the Sacramento Valley with rain and blanket the Sierra with heavy snow.

An estimated 350 customers lost power in Land Park and an additional 250 lost power in East Sacramento as of 1 a.m. Sunday, according to SMUD outage reports. Power was restored in the area after an hour, according to SMUD spokesman Chris Capra.

Capra said a bird stuck in a ground transformer caused the outages.

“We expected a lot higher winds yesterday, and so we were ready to go respond to a lot of power outages,” Capra said. “We certainly didn’t see the wind or rain we were expecting.”

Downtown Sacramento has seen almost an inch of rain in the last two days , according to weather service meteorologist Cory Mueller in Sacramento. Sacramento International Airport saw 1.39 inches of rain, and Placerville saw 1.47 inches.

Wind speeds gusted at 46 mph at Sacramento International Airport on Saturday, Mueller said. Sacramento Executive Airport saw gusts of 38 mph Saturday night.

The Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort reported that 32 inches of snow has fallen since Friday, 13 of those Saturday night.

Chain controls are required on eastbound I-80 from Nyack to Truckee and westbound I-80 from Truckee to Kingvale.

The weather service in Reno issued a blizzard warning for the Sierra from midnight Sunday to 10 p.m. Monday, citing strong winds and potential whiteout conditions.

“This is a dangerous and life threatening situation,” the warning reads. “Do not attempt to travel.”

Mueller predicted that scattered thunderstorms will continue in the Valley on Sunday, with heavy rain through the night and into Monday.

Mountainous regions can expect “intense mountain snow showers” Monday afternoon continuing into Tuesday, Mueller said, with snow levels dropping Sunday night through Tuesday morning.

This story was originally published February 3, 2019 at 1:05 PM.