Winter storms blast US; California to get more snow

Beleaguered Californians got hit again Tuesday as a new winter storm moved into the already drenched and snow-plastered state, with blizzard warnings blanketing the Sierra Nevada and forecasters warning residents that any travel was dangerous.

Bookending the country, a winter storm in the Northeast closed or delayed the opening for hundreds of schools as the most significant snowfall of what has been a mild winter hit overnight.

And Michigan again fought a battle with ice after a new storm that hit Monday left thousands of customers without power in the central part of the state.

California mountains bombarded

Several feet of new snow was expected at higher elevations in California. On the eastern flank of the Sierra, the Mono County Sheriff’s Office bluntly tweeted late Monday: “The roads are closed. All of them. There is no alternate route, back way, or secret route. It’s a blizzard, people.”

Winter storm warnings were posted in many of Southern California’s snowladen mountains, where the new front was expected to last into Wednesday.

California is still digging out from a series of almost nonstop storms. San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles, declared a state of emergency after many mountain residents were trapped in their homes over the weekend and hundreds of motorists were stranded.

Northeast finally gets snow

As much as 7 or 8 inches of snow blanketed some communities in the Northeast by Tuesday morning.

“We’ve had no winter until now,” said Harry Craven, the owner of Highland True Value Hardware and Bike Shop in Holyoke, Massachusetts. “But we’ve had people coming in the last couple days for ice melt and shovels.”

Nationwide, there were about 500 commercial flight cancellations and more than 1,400 delays by midday, according to FlightAware.com.

A winter storm warning covered parts of the Northeast, including Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Heavy snow was forecast through Tuesday afternoon.