Key Northern California highway closed as snow continues to fall in the blizzard-hit Sierra Nevada

By BROOKE HESS and CHRISTOPHER WEBER
Associated Press

TRUCKEE, Calif. — A major highway was closed and ski resorts were shut down Sunday as the effects of a powerful blizzard continued to cause problems across the Sierra Nevada, and forecasters warned that more heavy snow was on the way for Northern California.

Sections of Interstate 80 to the west and north of Lake Tahoe were made impassable by blowing snow piling up in lanes, with no estimate for reopening, the California Highway Patrol said.

The CHP office in South Lake Tahoe warned motorists that tire chains for improved traction are required on most mountain routes. The online warning was accompanied by a photo of a big rig without chains stuck in whiteout conditions on a local road.

“Trying to bypass chain control, no no no!!" the agency said on X, formerly Twitter. “Dangerous and not smart.”

A blizzard warning was in effect until midnight for areas above 6,500 feet (1,980 meters), while lower elevations were under a winter storm warning with another 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow possible, the National Weather Service office in Sacramento said. “Mountain travel is HIGHLY discouraged!” the office warned.

The multiday storm closed I-80 and other highways, shut down ski resorts and left thousands of homes and businesses without power.

By Sunday morning, Pacific Gas & Electric had restored electricity to all but about 7,000 California customers, while NV Energy had reduced its outages to roughly 1,000 homes and businesses.

Palisades Tahoe, the largest resort on the north end of the lake and site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, was among several ski mountains that closed most or all chairlifts for a second straight day Sunday because of snow, wind and low visibility. Palisades reported a three-day snow total of 6 feet (1.8 meters), with more falling.

“We will be digging out for the foreseeable future,” officials said on the resort’s blog.

Kevin Dupui, who lives in Truckee, just northwest of Lake Tahoe, said his snow blower broke, but it doesn't really matter because there's nowhere to put all the snow anyway. “We just move it around,” he said Sunday.

Dupui said residents and tourists seem to be mostly heeding warnings to stay home. “The roads haven’t been that safe, so we don’t really want people driving around,” he said.

Another Truckee resident, Jenelle Potvin, said at first some cynical locals thought “there was a little too much hype” made about the approaching storm. But then the unrelenting snow began Friday night.

“It was definitely a blizzard. And we woke up to a lot of snow yesterday and it never let up,” Potvin said Sunday. Her neighbors were snowmobiling and cross-country skiing in the streets. "But, yeah, we went from 0 to 100 pretty fast.”

Weather service meteorologist William Churchill on Saturday called the storm an “extreme blizzard” for the Sierra Nevada but said he didn’t expect records to be broken.

The storm began barreling into the region Thursday. A widespread blizzard warning through Sunday morning covered a 300-mile (480-kilometer) stretch of the mountains. A second, weaker storm was forecast to bring additional rain and snow between Monday and Wednesday, forecasters said.

California authorities on Friday shut down 100 miles (160 kilometers) of I-80, the main route between Reno and Sacramento, because of “spin outs, high winds, and low visibility.” There was no estimate when the freeway would reopen from the California-Nevada border west of Reno to near Emigrant Gap, California.

Rudy Islas spent about 40 minutes shoveling his car out before heading to work at a coffee shop in Truckee on Sunday morning. Neither he nor his customers were fazed by the snow, he said.

“To be honest, if you’re a local, it’s not a big deal,” he said. “I think a lot of people are used to the snow and they prepare for it.”