Heavy snow fell within the Sierra Nevada as a winter storm packing highly effective winds despatched ski raise chairs swinging and closed mountain highways whereas downpours at decrease elevations triggered flood watches Sunday throughout massive swaths of California into Nevada.
More than 250 miles (400 km) of the Sierra from north of Reno south to Yosemite National Park remained below winter storm warnings both till late Sunday or early Monday.
“The Sierra snow forecast is straight-forward with snow expected to continue throughout the day and periods of localized heavier snow bands resulting in limited visibility and boosted snow totals,” forecasters from the National Weather Service’s Reno workplace instructed CBS San Francisco. “While snow will start to taper off by this afternoon, the snow showers will continue for much of the Sierra through early Monday morning.”
For a lot of Saturday, the snow had a excessive moisture stage. Known as “Sierra cement,” the thick, heavy snow triggered the avalanche warning.
As of Sunday morning, 48 inches had fallen at Sierra-at-Tahoe, 46 inches at Tahoe Donner, greater than 40 inches at Palisades Tahoe, 33 inches at Kirkwood and 32 inches at Heavenly during the last 24 hours, in line with CBS San Francisco.
Caltrans through AP
The Heavenly ski resort at Lake Tahoe shut down some operations when the brunt of the storm hit Saturday. The resort posted video of raise chairs swaying violently due to gusts that topped 100 mph (161 kph), together with a tweeted reminder that wind closures are “always for your safety.”
To the south, Mammoth Mountain reported that greater than 20 inches (51 cm) of snow fell Saturday, with one other 2 ft (.6 meters) doable because the tail finish of the system moved by way of the jap Sierra.
The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab in Soda Springs, California reported Sunday morning that greater than 43 inches (110 cm) had fallen in a 48-hour span.
A 70-mile (112-km) stretch of eastbound U.S. Interstate 80 was closed Saturday “due to zero visibility” from the northern California city of Colfax to the Nevada state line, transportation officers mentioned. Chains have been required on a lot of the remainder of I-80 and different routes within the mountains from Reno towards Sacramento.
Many different key roads have been closed due to heavy snow, together with a stretch of California Highway 89 between Tahoe City and South Lake Tahoe, the freeway patrol mentioned.
The U.S. Forest Service issued an avalanche warning for the backcountry within the mountains west of Lake Tahoe the place it mentioned “several feet of new snow and strong winds will result in dangerous avalanche conditions.”
Gusts as much as 50 mph (80 kph) that despatched timber into properties in Sonoma County north of San Francisco on Saturday may attain 100 mph (160 kph) over Sierra ridgetops on Sunday, the National Weather Service mentioned.
Heavy rain was forecast by way of the weekend from San Francisco to the Sierra crest with as much as 2 inches (5 cm) within the Bay Area and as much as 5 inches (13 cm) at Grass Valley northeast of Sacramento.
In San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, a large redwood fell in Hellman Hollow, forcing organizers to change the race course on the National Club Cross County Championships, CBS San Francisco reported.
“The tree was a Monterey Cyprus, approximately 30 feet tall,” a spokesperson for San Francisco Recreation and Parks instructed CBS San Francisco. “It went down around 10:30 a.m. No injuries and we relocated the race to the upper Polo Fields track.”
Warnings and watches have been additionally up throughout Southern California, as heavy rain prompted localized flooding in better Los Angeles.
“Significant travel delays possible with accumulating snow on several mountain roads. This could include the Tejon Pass and Grapevine area of Interstate 5,” the National Weather Service’s LA-area workplace mentioned in a press release.
Forecasters in Arizona issued a winter storm look ahead to northern and central Arizona starting Sunday night for areas above 5000 ft (1,525 meters) together with Flagstaff, Prescott and the Grand Canyon, the place icy temperatures and as much as a foot of snow was predicted.
As the storm exits the U.S. West, it can push throughout the nation and attain the Plains by mid-week, bringing important rain and below-average temperatures, mentioned Marc Chenard, meteorologist on the National Weather Service on the nationwide heart in College Park, Maryland.
“It will be a busy week while this system moves across the country,” Chenard mentioned Sunday.