A car drives on Highway 50 at Echo Summit near Meyers (El Dorado County). A winter storm brought a deluge of snow to higher elevations.
Max Whittaker/Special to the Chronicle
A powerful storm system dumped 2 feet of snow to the Sierra over the course of a few hours overnight, the National Weather Service said Thursday.
The Central Sierra Snow Lab measured 27 inches of snow from 8 a.m. Wednesday to 8 a.m. Thursday, the largest single-day accumulation at the lab since March 5, 2023.
Weather conditions were conspiring to bring even more snow to the Tahoe region: While snow was expected to taper off Thursday, another deluge was likely to begin Friday, meteorologists said. The weather service issued a winter storm warning that was expected to last until at least 11 p.m. Thursday.
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Most places saw up to 2 feet of snow overnight Wednesday, with the Sierra Crest receiving 30 inches, said Mark Deutschendorf, a meteorologist with the weather service’s office in Reno.
“Most of the storm is finished, but there will be some snow showers through this afternoon,” Deutschendorf said Thursday.
The Bay Area’s highest elevations, including the Mayacamas Mountains and Mount Diablo, could also see snow levels below 2 inches Thursday morning. Down south, about 1 foot of snow was expected to fall on the highest peaks of the Santa Lucia Mountains along the Central Coast.
Snow caps Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton as seen from San Jose during a rain break Thursday. Much of the Bay Area will get a break from wet weather this weekend before another storm system brings rain Sunday evening.
Stephen Lam/The Chronicle
Palisades Tahoe reported 22 inches of snow overnight above 8,000 feet in elevation. Resort spokespeople said they expected an additional 9 to 13 inches Thursday. Ski lifts were expected to be slow to open, and many neighborhood roads difficult to travel.
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Palisades announced Thursday morning that all of its lifts would be delayed. Additional information about what caused the pause wasn’t immediately available.
At about 8 a.m., a ski patroller sustained a leg injury while en route to perform avalanche mitigation work along the KT-22 terrain, where a deadly avalanche occurred last year. The worker was transported “for further medical care,” Patrick Lacey, a spokesperson for Palisades Tahoe, said in an email.
“Our thoughts are with our injured team member for a speedy recovery,” he said.
California Highway Patrol officials said Highway 50 would be closed for avalanche control from Chiapa Drive to Echo Summit until around 11 a.m. Thursday. “Please be patient as Caltrans works to reopen the road during these extremely heavy snow conditions,” CHP said on social media.
Snow showers were expected to produce a few inches Thursday afternoon, with only a handful of places getting closer to 3 to 6 inches of snow, Deutschendorf said. Elevations above 7,000 feet in the Greater Lake Tahoe area could see 3 to 9 inches of snow, according to the weather service.
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“Miracle March is providing,” remarked Brian Chalstrom from Truckee, who was among a small group of skiers and boarders who arrived at Alpine Meadows in hopes of making fresh tracks. But he and his friends had to wait several hours while ski patrol conducted avalanche control on the mountain. At the base, ski patrollers warned people of avalanche danger.
From the chairlift at Alpine, Kevin Merrigan from Castro Valley, who is staying in Truckee until Friday, said conditions were very slippery on the drive up Wednesday night.
“The drive was stop and go. We got to gold run about 7:30 and they stopped us. So we were there for three and a half hours. We were about to give up, driving down to get food in Auburn and they opened it.”
Though lifts started late, he quickly made three runs in deep snow that had many skiers and boarders struggling to stay moving.
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Freelance writer Melissa Siig contributed to this report.
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