At least nine Lake Tahoe ski resorts closed and visitors to Yosemite National Park were told to urgently leave Friday as California’s most powerful storm of the season bore down on the Sierra Nevada, where residents were urged to take shelter as they prepared for up to 10 feet of snow in some areas.
The storm began barreling into the region on Thursday, with the biggest effects expected to close major highways and trigger power outages Friday afternoon into Saturday. A blizzard warning through Sunday morning covers a 300-mile stretch of the mountains.
Rick Grundy, manager of the Chevron Food Mart near Donner Lake just off Interstate 80, said business was slow Friday — people seemed to have taken officials’ advice to hunker down. After living in the Truckee, California, area for 20 years, he said he knows how to prepare for bad weather.
“We’re pretty well stocked. We knew this was coming,” Grundy said. “One thing I’ve learned, if you are not used to driving in this weather, if you’re not used to being in this area, it’s not a good idea. You should stay home.”
Meteorologists predict as much as 10 feet of snow is possible in the mountains around Lake Tahoe by the weekend, with 3 to 6 feet in the communities on the lake’s shores and more than a foot possible in the valleys on the Sierra’s eastern front, including Reno.
Winds are expected to gust in excess of 115 mph over Sierra ridgetops, and 70 mph at lower elevations.
Backcountry avalanche warnings were in place in various areas. All visitors at Yosemite were supposed to be out as of noon Friday, with the park closed at least through noon Sunday. More than 7 feet of snow could fall in some areas.
At least nine Lake Tahoe ski resorts said they were remaining closed Friday due to the conditions, and a handful of other resorts either opened or planned to but warned of limitations and delays.
But the snow wasn’t all bad news for the resorts. Palisades Tahoe ski resort said the big dump expected over the weekend on top of 8 feet of snow in February should allow them to keep the slopes open through Memorial Day.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
In South Lake Tahoe, the lunchtime crowd at Heidi’s Pancake House was a third of the typical 60 diners. Even with the worsening forecast, general manager Salvador Ortega expected to stay open and most of his employees to show up.
“We are one of the restaurants in South Lake Tahoe that don’t close unless we don’t have power or something breaks down. We’re open 365,” he said. “Tahoe is a small community. It’s rare when an employee doesn’t make it to work.”
Ortega said he believes the snowfall will ultimately be good for the community and increase tourism once it’s safe to travel again.
Andrew Schwartz, the lead scientist at UC-Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab, said it is possible they could break their modern-day record of about 3.5 feet of snow in a single day from back in 1989.
The California Highway Patrol imposed travel restrictions on a long stretch of I-80 between Reno and Sacramento, requiring drivers to put chains on their tires.
On the bright side, California water officials said the storm should provide a much-needed boost to the Sierra snowpack, which is vital to the state’s water supplies. It stood at 80% of average to date on Thursday, California Department of Water resources officials said.
Lacey De Guzman, the office manager at the Bar of America in Truckee said the roads were fine Friday when she made the 30-mile trip early morning to work from Reno. But the restaurant bar on the main drag of the historic railroad town, just down the road from Palisades-Alpine ski resort, has had very few customers so far, she said.
“We’re expecting it to be pretty slow throughout the whole weekend given that everyone is being told to stay off the roads and just stay home,” she said.
Todd Cummings decided to drive from Santa Cruz to the Lake Tahoe area ahead of the storm. His destination, the Northstar resort, did open, but the slopes were far from packed.
“Nobody’s here,” he said in a brief phone interview during his first chairlift ride of the day. “They have limited trails open but this lift goes to the top.”
Dazio reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press reporters John Antczak in Los Angeles and Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed to this report.
