A severe late winter storm will bring heavy snow and blizzard conditions to parts of Northern California from Thursday through the weekend and forecasters and local officials are warning of closed roads and flight delays and cancellations.
Total accumulations could be as much as 13’ (33 cm) in the Sierra Nevada.
The storm warnings come exactly once year to date after a major storm hit the region but this storm is expected to be far more severe.
The National Weather Service warned of disorienting whiteout conditions, “impossible” travel, avalanches, “extensive tree damage,” and “extended power outages.power outages.”
“Sierra travel will be treacherous, with a period of life-threatening blizzard conditions sandwiched in for Friday afternoon through Saturday morning,” the NWS office in Reno said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “Travel is highly discouraged in these conditions.”
“Do not take this storm lightly,” the office added. “Whiteout conditions are very disorienting, so this is not the time to gamble with you or your family’s lives.”
The NWS office in Sacramento warned that, starting as soon as Thursday afternoon, mountain travel will become “extremely dangerous to impossible.”
Blizzard warnings are now in effect for much of the Sierra Nevada, including the Northeast Foothills, Motherlode and western Plumas and Lassen counties above 2,000’ (610 m) in elevation. The warnings include popular ski resorts such as Mammoth Mountain and Palisades Tahoe, and stretch as far north as an area near Redding, California.
Farther north, winter storm warnings are in effect for the high terrain.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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