RENO, Nev. — A powerful snowstorm raged in the Sierra Nevada overnight into Saturday as the season’s biggest storm shut down a long stretch of California’s Interstate-80 and gusty winds and heavy rain hit lower portions, leaving tens of thousands of customers without power.
Up to 3 meters of snow is expected in some areas. The National Weather Service in Reno said late Friday that it expects the heaviest snow to arrive after midnight, with blizzards and snow that could reduce visibility to a quarter mile or less.
“High to extreme avalanche danger” is expected through Sunday evening in the backcountry in the central Sierra, including the greater Lake Tahoe area, the weather service said.
Authorities in California closed 100 miles of I-80 on Friday due to “spinouts, high winds and poor visibility.” They had no estimate for when the highway would reopen from the California-Nevada border, just west of Reno, to near Emigrant Gap, California.
Pacific gas & Electric reported around 10 p.m. on Friday that 24,000 homes and businesses were without power.
A tornado touched down in Madera County Friday afternoon and caused some damage to an elementary school, said Andy Bollenbacher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Hanford.
Some ski areas that closed Friday said they planned to remain closed Saturday to dig out ahead of Sunday’s reopening, but most said they would wait for updates Saturday morning.
Palisades Tahoe, the largest resort on Tahoe’s north side and site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, said it hoped to reopen some of the Palisades slopes at the lowest point on Saturday, but was closing all chairlifts in the area for a second day. neighboring Alpine Meadows would close due to forecasts of “heavy snow and wind speeds in excess of 100 mph” (160.9 km per hour).
“We have had essential personnel on the hill all day carrying out control work, maintaining access roads and excavating chairlifts, but based on current conditions, if we are able to open at all, there will be significant delays,” Palisades said Tahoe. Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The storm began moving into the region on Thursday. A blizzard warning through Sunday morning covers a 300-mile (482-kilometer) stretch of the mountains.
Some ski enthusiasts ran into the mountains before the storm.
Daniel Lavely, an avid skier who works at a home improvement store in the Reno area, was not one of them. He said Friday he wouldn’t have considered making an hour-long drive to ski at a Tahoe resort with his season pass because of the gusty winds.
But most of his customers on Friday seemed to think the storm wouldn’t be as bad as predicted, he said.
“One person asked me for a shovel,” Lavely said. “No one asked me about a snow blower, which we sold out during the last storm about two weeks ago.”
Meteorologists predict as much as 10 feet of snow is possible in the mountains around Lake Tahoe this weekend, with 3 to 6 feet of snow in lakeside communities and more than 100 feet of snow. centimeters) possible in the valleys on the eastern front of the Sierra, including Reno.
Yosemite National Park closed Friday and officials said it would remain closed at least until Sunday afternoon.
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Associated Press reporter Janie Har in San Francisco contributed to this report.
