(KRON) — Meteorologists stated the primary main storm of the 2024-2025 winter season will blanket excessive elevations of the Sierra Nevada mountains with three ft of snow this weekend.
UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab wrote Friday, “High snowfall rates of 1-3 (inches) per hour are expected to begin around midnight tonight and continue through late afternoon tomorrow. Models ECMWF, GFS, NBM are suggesting 30-48 (inches) of snowfall through tomorrow afternoon at the Snow Lab and its surroundings.”
Snow has been falling steadily over the Sierra for the previous two days and a band of upper intensities hit Donner Summit Friday afternoon. Maddy Condon, a spokesperson for Palisades Tahoe resort, stated greater than a foot of snow already fell inside the previous 24 hours. “Our slopes mirror a snowglobe, and the snow is expected to intensify and bring up to another two feet by the end of this storm system,” Condon wrote.
Dwell San Francisco Bay Space storm updates
The heaviest snowfall is forecast for Saturday morning. The storm’s energy will weakened by Saturday evening, forecasters stated.
The Nationwide Climate Service issued a Winter Storm Warning that can stay in impact for the Sierra Nevada, Shasta County mountains, and southern Cascades till 10 p.m. Saturday.
All journey between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon must be averted until it’s an emergency scenario, in response to the snow lab’s consultants.
(Picture courtesy CHP South Lake Tahoe)
The NWS cautioned anybody with desires of hitting the slopes for snowboarding or snowboarding to “please reconsider any early weekend travel plans up into the mountains.”
Harmful situations are anticipated with heavy snowfall charges and winds that would gust as excessive as 50 mph, leading to whiteouts, the snow lab stated. “Travel impacts are expected to be severe, particularly on Saturday morning when the heaviest rates are occurring and overnight snowfall has already occurred. Ideally, folks will heed the warning and stay of the road overnight to let CalTrans work their magic on I-80,” the snow lab wrote.
Central Sierra Snow Laboratory director Andrew Schwartz stated, “If you are not already up there you need to wait. Stay off the roads from now until Sunday.”
