麻豆影视

Skip to main content

Parts of California get a White Christmas after snowfall

In this image taken from video from a Caltrans remote video traffic camera, traffic is stopped along a snow covered Interstate 80 at Donner Summit, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021. (Caltrans via AP) In this image taken from video from a Caltrans remote video traffic camera, traffic is stopped along a snow covered Interstate 80 at Donner Summit, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021. (Caltrans via AP)
Share
LOS ANGELES -

Parts of California are getting a White Christmas after all, with snowfall pounding mountains across the state.

Other areas of California, however, saw a wet and rainy Christmas as storms continue to drench the state, causing flash flooding and evacuations in some areas over the holiday period.

A 70-mile (113-kilometre) stretch of interstate over the top of the Sierra Nevada was closed Saturday when a storm that dropped nearly 2 feet (60 centimetres) of snow on some ski resorts around Lake Tahoe overnight got a second wind.

Interstate 80 connecting Reno, Nevada, to Sacramento, California, over the Sierra was closed in both directions due to poor visibility from the Nevada-California state line to Colfax, California.

"The worst part of the storm is here so expect long delays," the California Highway Patrol in Truckee tweeted Saturday afternoon.

Friday night into Saturday, 20 inches (50 centimetres) of snow fell at Homewood on Tahoe's west shore. About a foot (30 centimetres) was reported at Northstar near Truckee, California and 10 inches (25 centimetres) at the Mount Rose ski resort on the southwest edge of Reno.

At Donner Pass in the Sierra, which is along the closed interstate, officials with the University of California, Berkeley's Central Sierra Snow Laboratory wondered on Twitter if the recent snowfall could break the snowiest December record of 179 inches (4.6 meters) set in 1970.

There's been at least 119 inches (3 metres) recorded so far this month , according to The Mercury News, with more expected over the next 72 hours.

The snowpack in the Sierra was at dangerously low levels after recent weeks of dry weather but the state Department of Water Resources reported on Christmas Eve that the snowpack was between 114% and 137% of normal across the range with more snow expected.

In the San Bernardino National Forest, crews are working on a US$4.2 million emergency project to repair a section of State Route 18 that washed down a hillside late Thursday after heavy rain, according to The San Bernardino Sun.

The roadway is a major route to Big Bear Lake and the closure near Panorama Point could be "several days if not weeks," the newspaper reported.

The Los Angeles area is likely to see rain and mountain snow for the next week, according to the National Weather Service, with temperatures significantly below normal through the middle of the week.

The San Diego region should see scattered showers, with heavy snow in the San Bernardino and Riverside County mountains, with precipitation possibly going into Thursday.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Bay Area is predicted to have rain showers through Monday before cold and drier conditions arrive through the middle of next week, the weather service said.

The storms across the West, which could drop rain and snow over much of the region into next week and plunge the Pacific Northwest into a lengthy cold snap, follow a now-departed atmospheric river that delivered copious amounts of precipitation earlier this week.

The National Weather Service says the Seattle-Tacoma area is likely to see up to 3 inches (7.6 centimetres) of snow over the weekend. By early next week, the Seattle area will dip as low as 18 degrees Fahrenheit (-7.7 degrees Celsius), the lowest in several years. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, will drop to -5 F (-20 C) by Wednesday and Portland will drop to the low 20s and high teens.

Rain and snow records broke in Nevada and state officials in Oregon declared an emergency ahead of the freezing temperatures, snow and ice.

Recent forecasts show at least an inch of snow is likely to fall Sunday in the Seattle and Portland regions, which don't typically see snow.

But forecasters and state officials say the main concern is cold temperatures in the region, with daytime highs next week struggling to reach above freezing, that are likely to impact people experiencing homelessness and those without adequate access to heating.

In Arizona, a winter weather advisory remained in effect Saturday through the weekend in the upper elevations of the mountains north of the Grand Canyon near the Colorado line. But the wet weather that dumped record-breaking rain on Phoenix and Flagstaff on Friday was moving out of the area.

The 1.67 inches (4.2 centimetres) of rain that fell at the airport in Flagstaff on Friday shattered the old record of 0.87 inches (2.2 centimetres) set in 2019. The inch (2.5 centimetres) that was recorded in Phoenix Friday broke the old record of 0.93 of an inch (2.4 centimetres) in 1944.

It also was the wettest day for the city since Feb. 22, 2020, when just over an inch fell.

------

AP writer Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

The City of Calgary ended water restrictions for the city at a Sunday morning update.

A Nova Scotian YouTuber has launched a mini-truck bookmobile.

Local Spotlight

Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.

Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.

They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.