Northern Nevada region set a daily snowfall record on December 31 by receiving nine inches of total average snowfall along with 2.2 inches of liquid precipitation. The rain preceding the snow made the roads icy and slick, creating unsafe driving conditions and avalanche danger.
“It was a pretty intense storm, pretty impactful,” says National Weather Service Forecaster Justin Collins. “The Reno/Sparks area got 6-12 inches below 5,000 feet and 10-18 inches of precipitation above 5,000 feet. The nine inches [received on December 31, 2022] came in at the top 15 of one of the most snowfalls in one day,” he adds.
The huge atmospheric river that affected the West Coast with heavy downpours, flooding, and multiple feet of snow falling in the Sierra Nevada may not be over yet, though, as another system passes through this week.
“It will still remain an active pattern throughout the week and the bigger part of the storm is coming in on Wednesday and Thursday,” Collins says. He doesn’t expect to be too much flooding during this next system though, as colder air temperatures are likely to drop lighter and drier precipitation earlier in the week.
“This past storm [on New Year’s Eve] we had a lot of wetter, heavier snow, what we call that Sierra cement,” says Collins. He added that while the snowfall in the Tahoe region was “fluffier” on Monday night (January 2, 2023), it was expected to get much denser/heavier on Wednesday and Thursday.
“Travel could be very difficult or nearly impossible [January 4-6]. If you do have to travel, be cautious, drive slow, and check NDOT (Nevada Department of Transportation) and CalTrans for current snow conditions,” he says.
Palisades Tahoe experienced heavy flooding/buried chairlifts (all of the local ski resort’s operations were delayed the following day).
The roads are expected to be slick and icy again, parts of I-80 may close, and chain controls over the passes are likely. For updated weather conditions in your area, visit www.noaa.gov.
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