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CNN
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Blizzard situations continued to slam Northern California over the weekend with damaging winds and heavy snow dumping on mountain ridges right down to the valleys.
Winter storm alerts stay throughout most western states, with blizzard warnings nonetheless in impact for the Sierra Nevada.
Essentially the most excessive situations are unfolding on the highest elevations within the mountains, with whiteout situations and hurricane-force winds.
The snow has closed a 70-mile stretch of Interstate 80 close to the Nevada state line for greater than a day after freeway officers reported stranded drivers Friday evening.
“Extraordinarily heavy snowfall charges of 2-6 inches an hour mixed with very sturdy winds exceeding 100 mph at instances will keep unimaginable journey situations within the Sierra Nevada,” the Climate Prediction Heart mentioned.
Officers added there isn’t any estimated time for reopening.
The climate service has warned of “excessive to excessive” avalanche hazard by Sunday afternoon within the Central Sierra and Higher Lake Tahoe space.
About 5-12 toes of snow was forecast to fall alongside the crest of the Sierra by late Sunday, whereas damaging wind gusts “presumably in extra of 75 mph” might be anticipated throughout the Intermountain West, in response to the Climate Prediction Heart.
“These winds will seemingly down bushes and energy traces, leading to widespread energy outages,” it mentioned. “Furthermore, cooler temperatures will usher into the West behind the preliminary entrance, decreasing the snow ranges down into many valleys.”
Greater than 15,000 houses and companies had been with out energy in California Sunday afternoon, down from practically 40,000, in response to the monitoring web site PowerOutage.us.
Quite a few ski fields and chairlifts remained closed Sunday, together with at Palisades Tahoe, Sierra at Tahoe and Mammoth, with some resorts warning of delayed begins.
The ski resort Sierra-at-Tahoe in Twin Bridges shared photographs with CNN of snow piling up against the door of the resort’s upkeep store and a automobile within the resort’s visitor parking buried in snow that fell in a single day.
“The depth of the snow and excessive winds alongside the Sierra Nevada in addition to throughout the Intermountain West will step by step wane by Monday. Nevertheless, reinforcing upper-level energies arriving from the Pacific (will) hold the unstable chilly air mass in place throughout a big part of the western US,” the Nationwide Climate Service mentioned in its forecast discussion Sunday afternoon.
Frequent rounds of mountain snow will attain as far east because the central Rockies by the following couple of days, and Sunday’s waning storm can be adopted by a brand new system on Monday, the climate service mentioned.
Whiteouts and ‘unimaginable’ journey situations
Excessive snowfall and roaring winds within the Sierra and elements of the northern ranges imply blowing snow and whiteout situations making journey “unimaginable,” the Nationwide Climate Service warned.
The storm pressured the closure of the principle highway to Mammoth Mountain ski resort, US 395, for hours Saturday resulting from whiteout situations, in response to the California Division of Transportation.
The snowy and windy situations left some automobiles caught on the highway on Friday, with some motorists in want of rescue, in response to the freeway patrol workplace Truckee, which reported a “mass quantity of automobiles caught over Donner Summit.”
“At one level, emergency personnel and tow vans had a troublesome time attending to motorists resulting from blizzard situations,” the company mentioned.
Many different roadways within the space are closed because of the climate and a few are being chain managed, requiring automobiles to have chains to proceed on the roadways.
The California Freeway Patrol posted a photograph Saturday afternoon of one among its automobiles caught in snow. “Even our officers generally get caught within the snow! The blizzard-like situations have but to let up, however nonetheless, our officers are working onerous to maintain everybody secure. Keep away from journey throughout this time and keep up to date on highway situations,” it said on Facebook.
On Sunday morning, the freeway patrol in Truckee shared video of snowy situations and low visibility on a stretch of I-80, which remained closed on Sunday at Colfax and the Nevada state line as of 6 a.m. Pacific Time.
Officers mentioned there isn’t any estimated time for reopening.
The extreme winter storm situations in Northern California posed points for crews working Sunday to clear roadways of snow, which broken some tools.
“We now have been down to 2 of 10 blowers at our central hub in Kingvale and 6 out of 20 from Auburn to the Nevada state line,” California Division of Transportation officers mentioned in a post on X.
Within the South Lake Tahoe space, a snowslide trapped automobiles and briefly shut down Freeway 50 Sunday morning. There have been no accidents and crews shortly reopened the highway, officers mentioned.
Yosemite Nationwide Park, which closed Friday because of the storm, partially reopened to guests Sunday afternoon, park officers introduced on Facebook.
“Count on snowy situations all through the park,” park officers mentioned.
Park officers warned guests tire chains could also be required for his or her automobiles and to verify highway situations.
A blizzard warning stays in impact for the park space till 7 p.m. on Sunday, in response to the Nationwide Climate Service in Hanford, California.
