The Sierra Nevada finally saw a lot of snowfall in the winter this week, and so far the warm storm has caused more rain and sleds than snow. Snowfall from Wednesday night to Friday morning ranges from four and a half feet in Ross Hill, Nevada to three feet in Donner Pass, California.
“That has been the largest snow manufacturer we’ve seen in the Sierra this season,” said Colin McKellar, forecaster for the National Weather Services Office in Reno, Nevada, on Friday. explain.
Snow and wind hammered the mountain on Thursday, causing huge delays on the highway and the car spinned.
“It’s definitely an epic snow day in the Sierra,” said Caltrans spokesman John O’Connell, an agency that helps manage traffic chaos.
The snow was still falling on Friday afternoon and drivers had to use tire chains to travel on many major highways, including Interstates 80 and 50, which provide access to the Tahoe Basin.
Conditions are expected to improve gradually by Friday, and clear and dry Saturday is expected, which is good news for those planning to travel to the mountains on the President’s Day holiday weekend. The showers in tomorrow may fall on Sunday.
“The weather should be better tomorrow, but I expect a lot of traffic today and the weekend because it’s a holiday,” O’Connell said.
Before the storm, Palisades Tahoe, California’s largest ski resort, opened the Silverado chair in Zhongshan, which required a lot of snow to run and sometimes remained closed throughout the winter. It provides access to 600 acres of the resort’s most challenging terrain.
“This is one of the chairs we ask for the most,” said Madison Condon, a resort spokesman. “Part of what makes it so famous is the absolute extreme. You have huge cliffs, crazy slides.”
Chair lifts closed again due to heavy snow and strong winds, but is expected to reopen this weekend.
Snow dumps pose high risks in remote areas, including avalanches near the Tahoe Basin and Mammoth Mountain. (The downhill ski resort has staff to deal with the avalanche risk.)
Steven Mace, operations director at Sierra Avalanche Center, said Saturday’s forecast was sunny and clear, and he was worried that people would craving for remote areas and ignore the risk of avalanche .
“The biggest gain this weekend is a large, potentially fatal avalanche,” Mr. Mays said. “Everyone should start a new day with predictions.”
The storm this week swept across California on Wednesday, releasing heavy rains in the north and south, where wildfires make the landscape particularly vulnerable to mudslides and debris. When the system arrived at the Sierra Mountains Wednesday night, there was already a lot of cold air. This allows the storm to produce more snow and produce at lower altitudes, McKelal said. As of Friday morning, nearly two feet of snow had been recorded around Lake Tahoe, which is about 6,000 feet above sea level.
This winter, several storms swept across the mountains, and they not only tended to be warm but also favored the northern region.
This is evident in data collected by the California Department of Water Resources, which suggests that the North Snow Bag is larger than usually this time of year, while the central and southern half of the snowdrifts are lower than normal. The agency tracked the snow carefully as it provided about 30% of the state’s water supply in a great year.
This storm will help balance the difference between the north and the south as it provides barrage for the entire range. Mammoth Mountain in the central Sierra has recorded 50 inches since Wednesday night.
Mr. Mays skied in the Mammoth area on Thursday, taking measurements and starting to assess the risk of avalanche. The snow was blowing all over the place, and he could barely see it when it was falling at an impressive speed.
“The loading rate is really high,” Mr. Mays said. “The snowfall rate is the biggest snowfall we may have ever seen. We are no stranger to the heavy storms here, but the snowfall rate is four inches per hour. ”
