SNOW BLANKETS SIERRA NEVADA, MAKING HIGHWAYS IMPASSABLE
System delivers record low temps to Pacific Northwest
A sprawling winter storm system continued to wreak havoc Monday in the western United States, where an 81-mile stretch of an interstate in the Sierra Nevada remained closed by blinding snow while temperatures plunged to record lows in Seattle.
The lingering system rendered several major highways and state roads in Northern California impassable, with public-safety agencies posting video warnings of the extreme conditions.
The closed roads included Interstate 80, which was shut down from Placer County near Sacramento to the Nevada state line, and state Highway 50 in Sacramento Valley and the Lake Tahoe Basin, according to Caltrans.
A winter storm warning remained in effect for most of the region until 9 p.m. Monday, the National Weather Service said, adding that some areas could get another 2 feet of snow.
“The impacts on the roads are quite severe, and travel, in some cases, will be outright impossible,” Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist in College Park, Md., at the Weather Prediction Center of the Weather Service, said Monday.
On state Route 89, an avalanche closed the road from Tahoe City, Calif., to near Squaw Valley, the site of the Winter Olympics in 1960, the California Highway Patrol said on Twitter on Monday.
The storm, which began over the holiday weekend, shattered records for snowfall and low temperatures across the West.
At a research station operated by the Central Sierra Snow Lab of the University of California Berkeley, the snowfall for December surpassed 193 inches as of Monday morning — a record, researchers said. The previous record of 179 inches was set in 1970, said the lab, which is at an elevation of 6,894 feet.
“P.S. Sorry for the late update today!” the lab said on Twitter. “That snow was deep and hard to get through to do the measurement. It took us 40 minutes to get from the front door of the lab to where the measurement is completed 50 yards away!”
In a region that has been beleaguered by wildfires and drought, the snowfall could have its benefits.
The snowpack in the Sierra was at dangerously low levels after recent weeks of dry weather but the state Department of Water Resources reported on Monday that the snowpack was between 145 percent and 161 percent of normal across the range with more snow expected.
The Northstar California Resort in Truckee closed its mountain operations on Monday amid blizzard conditions. The ski resort has received more than 6 feet of snow over the last 48 hours, according to the resort’s Facebook post.
In San Diego County, a winter storm warning will be in effect until early today for the mountains above 5,000 feet.
“This storm is likely to bring an accumulation of 3 inches to as many as 7 inches of snow to the mountains in areas like Julian and Pine Valley,” said meteorologist Elizabeth Schenk.
Yet another winter storm is due in San Diego later this week starting early Wednesday and persisting through Friday, Schenk said.
In the Pacific Northwest, temperatures in western Washington and Oregon aren’t forecast to rise above freezing until at least Thursday, and possibly not until the weekend, forecasters said.
Emergency warming shelters were opened throughout Oregon and western Washington as temperatures plunged into the teens and forecasters said an arctic blast would last for several days.
For the second day in a row, Seattle broke a record Monday for lowest temperature on that particular day.
At the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a low of 17 degrees was recorded Monday, Orrison said. That broke the record of 20 degrees for the day in 1968, he said.
On Sunday, it was 20 degrees at Sea-Tac, breaking the record of 22 degrees in 1948.