Heavy Snow — West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada, California

2023-03-27 to 2023-03-29 · West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada, California

Event narrative

Ski resorts reported storm total snow amounts of 23 inches at Kirkwood, 19 inches at Sugar Bowl, and 17 inches at Sierra at Tahoe. Caltrans District 3 reported storm total snow amounts of 23.5 inches at Kingvale, 21 inches at Soda Springs, and 18 inches at Eagle Lakes. The National Operational Hydrological Remote Sensing Center's gridded snowfall analysis estimated 6 to 30 inches over the west slope northern Sierra Nevada over 72 hours. 1 death was reported by broadcast media in Alta, CA where a man died from a collapsed snow bank, trapping him next to a generator and exposing him to carbon monoxide. Interstate 80 was closed intermittently on 3/28 due to winter weather conditions and multiple spinouts.

Wider weather episode

A strong winter storm brought moderate to heavy rain with with flooding of roadways, streams and creeks, with mudslides also reported. There was continued river flooding along the already elevated Sacramento, San Joaquin, Cosumnes, Mokelumne, and Tuolumne rivers. The storm brought dangerous mountain travel conditions with snow levels around down to 2000 feet, locally 1000 feet in Shasta County. Storm totals reached 1 to 3 feet of above 5000 feet. Winds gusted up to 35-50 mph in the Central Valley. In the mountains there were gusts up to 50 to 70 mph, which coupled with heavy snow, brought whiteout conditions. The were numerous road closures, including Interstate 80, Interstate 5 north of Fawndale, as well as State Routes 88, 89 and 299. Widespread trees down across the area blocked roads and caused power outages. There were thunderstorms on the 28th with a funnel cloud reported visible from the tower at Redding Airport. There was a fatality reported when man was trapped by a collapsed snow bank next to his home.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1087858. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.