A blizzard with winds as much as 100 mph within the Sierras closed down a 111-mile stretch of a California freeway Sunday, making a large number of ski and vacation journey.
Freeway 50 from Placerville to Meyers in northern California was shut with “no estimated time of reopening,” Caltrans officers warned.
In the meantime, a 70-mile stretch of Interstate Freeway 80, which was shut Christmas Day, additionally remained closed Sunday from Colfax in north central California to the Nevada border as a result of “zero visibility” attributable to the storm, officers introduced.
Caltrans officers posted a short video to point out the harmful circumstances on I-80.
The California Freeway Patrol additionally posted an I-80 white-out video Saturday.
The 2 highways are the important thing routes between the Lake Tahoe ski resorts near the Nevada border and the San Francisco Bay space. Different sections of state highways have additionally been closed, together with numerous ski resorts.
On the border at Reno, Nevada, climate officers warned Sunday in a tweet: “You probably have the posh of staying dwelling and never having to drive immediately, take benefit. Presently gusting to 52 mph and a wind chill of 6 levels on the workplace. It’s very icy out with harmful driving circumstances.”
A 20-car pileup in Nevada closed Freeway 395 in Washoe County on Sunday. California firefighters helping within the accident referred to as climate circumstances “extreme.”
The Nationwide Climate Service on Sunday issued a continued winter storm warning for the Sierra Nevada to Tuesday morning with “tough to unattainable journey circumstances.” Meteorologists predicted as much as eight toes of snow over the mountains in that point.
Vacationers had been suggested to pack tire chains, heat winter garments and additional meals and water.
Whereas harmful, the snow is nice information for California’s long-running drought. The state in October recorded its driest yr in almost a century.
The snowpack within the Sierra was at dangerously low ranges, however the state Division of Water Sources reported Friday that it was between 114% and 137% of regular throughout the vary with extra snow anticipated.
In different dangerous information within the state, Freeway 1 in southern California was closed as a result of a rock slide.