'Safe travel window' is over in Sierra Nevada as major snowstorm expected
Snow began falling in California’s Sierra Nevada on Thursday and was expected to continue through the weekend, forecasters said as the mountains faced up to 10 feet of snow from a winter storm.
Snow began falling in California’s Sierra Nevada on Thursday and was expected to continue through the weekend, forecasters said as the mountains faced up to 10 feet of snow from a winter storm.
“Your safe travel window is over in the Sierra — best to hunker down where you are,” the National Weather Service in Reno, Nevada, which covers parts of California that include Lake Tahoe and Donner Pass, said on X.
The danger of avalanches at all elevations in the eastern Sierra was expected to rise to high Friday, the weather service said.
Snowplows along Interstate 80 near Soda Springs, Calif., in the Sierra Nevada mountains at the start of a powerful winter storm on Thursday.Mario Tama / Getty Images“By late afternoon, increasing snowfall and strong to extreme southwest winds will build dense slabs at all elevations. Conditions will continue to deteriorate overnight and throughout the weekend,” the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center said in an alert.
The center issued an avalanche watch until 7 a.m. Sunday.
Rating: 5