On March 2nd, the storm set up a conveyor belt of moisture just south and east of Sacramento. It did rain in Sacramento - about 2/3 of an inch of rain, which would translate to about 6 inches of snow - but given the orographic lift of the mountains and the conveyor belt of moisture, something like 5 feet of snow fell in the Lake Tahoe area in the same period - a full order of magnitude difference!
Sometimes its nice to live in the flat.
The blizzard dumped 5 to 7 feet of snow in parts of the Sierra Nevada over the weekend. The National Weather Service in Sacramento said a rare blizzard warning would remain in effect until midnight Sunday for areas above 6,500 feet elevation, while other parts of the Sierra Nevada were under a winter storm warning.
...Just west of Echo Summit on Highway 50, a few vehicles were temporarily stuck in several feet of snow that slid off the mountainside onto the road, said Steve Nelson, a spokesperson for the California Department of Transportation. He said a crew pulled the vehicles out, and no one was injured.
On the north side of Lake Tahoe, Interstate 80 remained closed due to snow for a third day.
...And in the Eastern Sierra, U.S. Highway 395 was closed in Mono County, where Caltrans crews were working to clear the snow.
Even as the blizzard conditions began to ease, the National Weather Service urged people to avoid driving in the mountains.
“Winds can get up to 45 miles an hour at those higher elevations, and with snow still falling, that causes really dangerous travel conditions,” said Sara Purdue, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. “We’re highly discouraging travel to the mountain areas still.”
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