A rare blizzard warning has been issued for the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Up to 5 feet of snow is expected to fall Wednesday night into Thursday as a strong cold core low pressure system pushes moisture inland from the Pacific Ocean.
National Weather Service forecasters in Reno said Tuesday as much as 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow is now possible in the upper elevations around Tahoe Wednesday night into Thursday, with winds gusting up to 110 mph (177 kph) over the ridge tops.
They say dangerous and potentially life-threatening blizzard conditions are forecast at elevations above 7,000 feet (2,133 meters), with high avalanche danger throughout the region.
Between 8 and 18 inches (20 and 45 centimeters) of snow is expected at lake level at Tahoe. Up to 6 inches (15 cm) is forecast for the valley floors around Reno and Carson City.
The Sierra blizzard warning runs from 7 p.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. Thursday.
Heavy snow moves in Wednesday afternoon and mountain travel will be dangerous to near impossible into Thursday. Road closures of Interstate 80, U.S. Highway 50 are likely.
And still people will try and drive in it.
Better close the interstate again.
Yearly snowfall is highly variable…we might get a couple years with almost no snow, followed by a year with 600″. Within the year, snowfall is highly variable: one or two storms will account for the majority of snowfall.
Averages don’t tell you much in the Sierra.
Here is how I know the “green” leftists are uneducated, brainwashed, ignorant, fools … they are convinced that “variable” cannot be “normal”. This native Californian, having lived through several drought cycles followed by deluge years, has personally witnessed the normality of variability. Add to that personal experience my native-born Californian; parents, grandparents, and immigrant great grandparents experience with normally-variable CA weather and climate … and I am not as STUPID as a millennial leftist who just moved here from Boston to work for Fackebook.
Got a video this morning from my grandson plowing snow in the Sierras with a grader. Says he loves the snow. Send more!
Forecast jetstream for North America.
Current satellite image of the US.
https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/sat/satlooper.php?region=us&product=wv-mid
Snowstorm will go over the entire west of the US.
Drivers,
Put a small box of “essentials” in your auto.
Some of the things:
. . water and other drinks;
. . food such as mixed nuts, energy bars, sealed candy;
. . boots, gloves, coat (multiples if more people);
. . medicines, wipes, first aid kit (upgrade from the basic $3.99 one)
There are many, repeat many, reports of people being delayed (or causing the delay) that do not have anything of use in their car.
A use an apple box, and in addition to the above stuff, I carry a complete change of clothes. Cardboard box
Maybe add a torch with spare batteries.
Perhaps also a radio, again with batteries.
A shovel/snow-shovel – keep your engine clear.
And a quilt/blanket.
And, if in an EV, a charged phone and Mr. Musk’s phone number – he can send a rocket to lift you free of the global warming white-stuff. [Mods – this last is strongly /SARC. f course.]
Auto
I am in California fleeing Syracuse’s lake effect snow and was taken aback at the car rental place in Sacramento this morning where people were renting cars to go up to the mountains. They were upgrading to four wheel drive to be “safe”. Based on many years in the snowbelt the correct response to this forecast is to not go there until the storm is over. The worst case scenario is sharing the road with an inexperienced driver who does not realize that four wheel drive does not help you stop.
Remember the storm where the pioneers were caught at Donner Pass?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party
I have a very short list of novels that have been absolute favorites ever since I first read them. George R. Stewart’s 1941 novel Storm,, which I read when I was in high-school and have re-read at least a couple of times per decade ever since, is at or near the top.
He gives us the (fictional) “biography” of a massive winter storm that overtakes the California and in particular the High Sierra, from the time it is merely a low in the Pacific. He gives us the details of its birth, growth, and maturation, and how it affects the lives of various humans (and a couple of other critters) over its lifespan.
And the stage is set and the final curtain falls … in Phoenix.
And yes, Mr. Caiazza , the subject of chains (no 4-wheel drive in 1941) does come up. Also of Easterners who think Buffalo’s snow.
And the stage is set and the final curtain falls … in Phoenix.
A page-turner for sure, and no sloppy soap-opera stuff either. And the storm, “Maria” — “please pronounce her name as ‘Mariah,'” he asks us, with the long i — is throughout the focus and the star of the book.
Not to be missed!
https://www.amazon.com/Storm-George-Rippey-Stewart/dp/B0007DPSPC/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
I spent the winter of 1970/71 at Tahoe City on the north end of lake Tahoe. The winter snows came in nice and early, then there was a twelve foot drop in 3 days in the middle of December. Around 2 weeks later of steady snowfall the area was hit with 6 feet in one day. The snow that winter equalled the level of snow faced by the Donner Party. It was amazing to experience what nature can accomplich in such a short time.
I was in Salt Lake City around the early 90s at Christmas and the northeast part of the city got 2 feet in 2 days and Park City got over 80 inches (we went there to ski). Amazingly, giant end-loaders kept the road to Park City open.
I got 6 inches new snow overnight in Reno proper. Squaw Valley ski resort got 29 new inches of snow at 8000 ft ASL in 24 hours ending 6:00 am PST Wed. 16 Jan. That was just the opening salvo, the bigger impulse is hitting the Sierra now. According to USDA NRCS currently ~100% of normal for this date snowpack water equivalence in the Sierra Nevada and Tahoe Basin. In the next 36 hours, the snowpack will probably improve to 130% of normal.
Here is something for coastal residents to take into consideration. There is a winddriven high seas area heading right at the California coast line which will impact the coast approximately SF in the south to southern Oregon in the north. Eureka looks like ground zero for the center of the high seas. …https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/primary/waves/overlay=significant_wave_height/orthographic=-128.04,36.41,672/loc=-133.799,38.194
There was an even higher high seas area of sea around 3 weeks ago around the same spot which peaked around 55 feet in height. A crab fishing crew was lost as those seas moved closer to the coast.
INSANE snowfall rates with blizzard warning about to start, Mammoth Lakes, CA!
https://youtu.be/6S80sHV13o0
Heavy rain here in Paso Robles, CA right now (12:21 AM). We’re ahead of the 1942-2019 average rainfall to date. The storm is headed toward the Sierra Nevada’s. All part of the “permanent drought” Jerry Brown and his minions told us about three years ago.
As of midnight Mammoth Mountain has 13″ of snow and recorded a gust of 130 mph at the top of mountain at 11,053′.
While the Sierra frequently get heavy snow and high winds it usually doesn’t impact cities and highways. The weather service doesn’t issue blizzard warnings for the tops of mountains.
Raining pretty good out here in the Mojave Desert. About 1 inch since midnight! Lake Rabbit Ranch (our version of Lake Manly) is fully formed, surrounding our house. Unfortunately it’s pretty warm, and probably melting all the snow in our local South Sierra below 6000 feet. Wawona, straight west from Mammoth, shows 4 inches.
Based on snow reports in from Mammoth, Squaw, Kirkwood and Carson Pass, far from this being a life threatening blizzard, the past 24 hrs saw only 2ft of snow, no more than the previous 24hrs.
So Mammoth had 3-4ft over 48hrs, not 5ft in 24hrs, ditto Kirkwood and Squaw. Carson Pass had 13 inches new snow.
Perhaps a rare station will find more?
This just shows how those who scaremonger must follow up with an after-the-event factual report…..
Wind is hitting 80 mph just upslope from us, I bet 100 mph up on the crest (6000 – 8000 ft)
Mammoth had a wind gust of 163mph early this morning. Been over 100mph much of the day today. Snowfall was definitely less than forecast or at least at the very low end. Another foot has fallen today.