Heavy Snow — West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada, California

2016-03-13 to 2016-03-14 · West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada, California

Event narrative

Kingvale shed reported a storm total of 36 inches of snow, receiving about 12 inches each day between early Saturday morning and Monday morning. They reported numerous spin outs and a few interstate holds as they cleared the snow and accidents through the event. On the evening of March 12th, a CHP officer was fatally injured when we he struck by a vehicle while outside his patrol vehicle directing traffic from an earlier vehicle accident. Excessive speed, an illegal lane change and slick roads were suspected reasons for the crash.

Wider weather episode

A series of strong winter storms moved across northern California Friday through Monday. Storms just a few days earlier had area small creeks and streams running high. Moisture from these storms resulted in numerous areas of low land flooding, small creek and stream flooding and main stem rivers getting high enough to flow over Weirs, that are part of the flood control system in the Northern Valley. This made local news as it was the first time in 4 years that the Weirs flowed since CA drought began back in 2012. There were also breezy to gusty winds with this system that resulted in power outages from downed trees and power lines. Wet slushy snow over the Sierra Nevada passes resulted in numerous slow downs and delays from slide offs and other accidents. A CHP officer was fatally injured when he was struck by a vehicle that lost control on the slick roads.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 626892. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.