Posted on 03/03/2024 3:59:16 AM PST by Libloather
A powerful blizzard that a meteorologist described as being 'as bad as it gets' howled in the Sierra Nevada mountains with wind gusts as strong as 190mph in the Lake Tahoe region, closing a long stretch of Interstate 80 and a 75-mile section of U.S. 395 in Northern California, forcing ski resorts to shut down, leaving thousands of homes without power.
More than 10 feet of snow was expected at higher elevations creating a 'life-threatening concern' for residents near Lake Tahoe and blocking travel on the key east-west freeway.
Blizzard conditions along I-80 saw hundreds trapped in their vehicles overnight, California Highway Patrol officers said with an estimated 200 to 300 vehicles stuck and unable to move.
Vehicles including everything from passenger cars to big rigs remained snowed-in from 5pm on Friday until 2:30am on Saturday morning over Donner Summit.
Eventually, tow trucks managed to get everyone out with no injuries, nor any vehicles having to be abandoned.
Kyle Frankland, a veteran snow-plow driver, said several parts of his rig broke as he cleared wet snow underneath piles of powder.
'I've been in Truckee 44 years. This is a pretty good storm,' Frankland said. 'It's not record-breaking by any means, but it's a good storm.'
I-80 was just one of many roads and highways that experienced the wrath of the blizzard; a 75-mile stretch of U.S. 395, leading up to Mammoth Mountain ski resort, was also closed.
On Highway 50, between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, several collisions and car spin-outs left drivers stuck in another huge impasse.
The National Weather Service revealed that gusts reached a dramatic 190mph at an elevation of 8,700 feet in Palisades Tahoe.
'It's a blizzard,' Dubravka Tomasin, a resident of Truckee, California, for more than a decade said. 'It's pretty harrowing.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Quick! Get your Chevy Volt ready!
It's not like they've never had a "monster" blizzard before. Happens every year.
They overdid the cloud seeding a bit this time.
190mph???
Wow...
I am thinking the UK Daily Mail (or the local editor) means Kilometers Per Hour.
Most tornadoes do not even reach 190 mph.
Snow in the mountains in the winter.
These English people have no idea what a mountain is.
Saw this ‘190’ number a couple days ago (whether it is KPH or MPH) and thought it was an intern or something and laughed it off, an EF4 tornado tops out at that number and will be enough to level your house and throw what is left of your body across the township.
That rascally globally warming!! You never know what disguise it will be wearing!😁
I have to give the Daily Mail credit for one thing. They don provide LOTS of excellent pictures and videos. WAY more than the US media does.
I don’t believe 190mph either
That would stil be 118 mph..a healthy tornado or hurricane zephyr!h
I am voting for not paying attention.
Up in higher elevations, maybe,?
The destruction just isn’t there. Of course they play games...so maybe the winds were higher up somewhere in the atmosphere.
Probably in some passes that imposed the Venturi Effect - where they know they will get incredible numbers that don’t match up with straight winds...
You were posting while I was typing the same thought.
A trucker who has lived there for 44 years said yes...bad storm...but not the worst by any means.
Mountain tops will get much higher wind gusts than sea level in some circumstances. Mt Washington, NH is famous for extreme wind with the weather station on top routinely getting wind gusts of over 100 mph and at times over 200mph
I used to work building vacation homes in the mountains of NC and we would often get winds in the winter approaching hurricane force. One site was on a high ridge at the narrow end of a valley that opened up wider in the north.
It was like a wind tunnel when the winter cold fronts came through. Nearby Grandfather Mth recorded a wind gust of 133 mph when I worked in the area. So a wind gust of 190 on a high peak in the Sierra Nevada in a strong storm off the Pacific ocean is credible to me.
I’ve hiked to the summit of Mt. Rose (Reno/Tahoe) a couple of times in the recent past at some 10,700+ ft. as one the higher peaks in the Sierras - it can get windy up there but at 190 mph the rescue teams would find what is left of your body halfway down the mountain a day or two later.
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