A powerful blizzard pummeling California brought double-digit feet of snow; 190mph wind gusts; closures of a main trucking artery, national parks and ski resorts; and even a tornado. And that was just day one.
Ski resorts in the Sierra foothills reported more than 2ft of snow accumulated in the 24 hours from Thursday evening to Friday evening. Snowfall at the Northstar ski resort in Truckee, California, was up to 44 inches (1 meter) since Thursday afternoon.
Below 2,500ft, up to 10ft (3 meters) of snow is expected in some areas. The National Weather Service (NWS) said early on Saturday that widespread blowing snow was creating “extremely dangerous to impossible travel conditions”. The combination of snow and high winds was most intense in the Sierra Nevada, with more than 3in (7cm) of snow falling per hour and wind gusts over 100mph (160km/h).