A storm slogging across the U.S. this week that dumped several feet of snow on the California mountains and drenched other areas with heavy rain is headed toward the Midwest and then the Northeast.
As the season’s first storm to have coast-to-coast impacts, the weather system was also threatening severe thunderstorms in parts of the South, the Weather Channel reported.
It was too early to know the impact it would have on the Northeast, but there was the potential for snow, sleet or freezing rain by late Wednesday or Thursday as weak cold fronts pushed temperatures down ahead of the storm’s arrival.
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On Sunday, the Sierra Nevada was socked with snow amid winds that closed mountain highways and shut down a Lake Tahoe ski resort. At lower elevations, portions of California and Nevada were under flood watches.
From north of Reno, on south to Yosemite National Park, a 250-mile swath was under winter storm warnings lasting into early Monday. In Lake Tahoe, 100 mph wind gusts batted lift chairs back and forth and forced at least one resort to cease some operations. Mammoth Mountain got hit with just under 2 feet of snow on Saturday and was braced for another 2 feet as the storm traversed the eastern Sierra.
More than 43 inches of snow fell in just 48 hours, the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab in Soda Springs, Calif., said Sunday. Zero visibility along a 70-mile stretch of U.S. Interstate 80 eastbound shut down the highway between Colfax, Calif., and the Nevada state line. The National Weather Service predicted 6 to 12 more inches “possible through Monday for the mountains of the Great Basin, Central Rockies, Arizona and southern California.”
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Avalanche warnings were also in effect for the mountainous backcountry west of Lake Tahoe and for portions of central-southern Idaho.
The massive storm is trudging slowly across the U.S. over the coming week, with rain headed for southern California. In Arizona, the storm could bring icy temperatures and up to a foot of snow to areas above 5,000 feet elevation.
Midweek will see the storm arriving in the Plains with significant rain and below-average temperatures, said NWS meteorologist Marc Chenard said, noting Sunday that “It will be a busy week while this system moves across the country.”
With News Wire Services
