Snowstorm causing travel trouble for mountain passes in the West

AccuWeather

The first of multiple days of heavy snow was already causing serious problems on mountain roads on Feb. 29.

Transcript

00:00 There is a major snowstorm that is already starting to create a travel nightmare on Interstate 80

00:06 in Donner Pass. Earlier tonight we talked to Hailey Pike with District 2 of the California

00:13 Transportation, Department of Transportation, which covers I-5 through the Siskiyou Mountains.

00:18 Pike says that they could see travel trouble during the storm on the I-5 if drivers aren't prepared.

00:26 When we do have to close the roadway it's generally because unfortunately we're dealing with

00:30 inexperienced, unprepared drivers or drivers who choose not to listen to our directions as far as

00:35 installing chains. So what happens is we either have traffic collisions or we have vehicles that

00:40 become disabled on the roadway and then our crews are pulled off of plowing and keeping the road

00:46 clear to help those motorists. Pike says that once the crashes or disabled vehicles are cleared on I-5

00:55 road on the I-5, road crews then have to play catch up on clearing the snow. That's often why

01:01 they shut down the last hours of these storms. So let's take a closer look at that forecast

01:07 because it is going to involve there the I-5 and the Siskiyou Mountains plus also as we've already

01:14 seen quite a bit of snow in the Sierra and that'll have some impacts for Donner too. This storm

01:19 system already has brought moisture out there. You can see some of the rain droplets coming in here.

01:24 Rain reports of two plus inches in many spots through Oregon and even southern Washington just

01:30 in the past couple of hours. We also have had some hail reports. Most of this is pretty small hail

01:35 but this is just a cool enough system to try to mix in some hail. Could have a few rumbles of

01:39 thunder in a few spots but we've also had wind and wind damage with some of these storms working

01:44 their way in. So that's going to be another factor that we're keeping a close eye on with trees down.

01:50 The storm itself has had a few impacts in several locations. Seattle, you've had your rounds of low

01:55 clouds, rainfall working its way on through 38 degrees. This view courtesy of EarthKamp. By the

02:01 way, the Cascades, they've picked up one to three feet or they're in the midst of picking up one to

02:06 three feet of snow with the storm system. You can see Seattle there just on the fringes of some of

02:11 that heavy rain that band setting up there from southwestern Washington or I guess really western

02:16 Washington there towards Seattle, especially on the center of town. Farther south, we've got some

02:22 of that heavy rain cutting through California. Sacramento recently getting some of the worst of

02:27 the heavy rainfall at this point in time and towards I-80. And once you get high enough in

02:32 elevation, as you get to about 6,000 feet or so, we are finding the snow still coming down at this

02:37 point in time. And that's part of our story. Snow levels will be between five to six thousand feet

02:43 and here we will be talking about feet of snow. It gets really, really messy. So while we will get

02:51 rain elsewhere throughout the state where most people live, a few spots where people live in the

02:56 mountains, that's where we're talking about the impacts with the feet of snow. As we go through

03:00 Friday, it's wet, it's windy in San Francisco. Temperatures in the upper 50s. We'll also keep

03:04 some of that rain in Medford too. Rounds of heavy rainfall. You can see pieces of energy just sliding

03:10 their way and you'll take one wave as we go into Friday morning. Another wave throughout Friday

03:15 evening into Friday night and then Saturday. There's still plenty of moisture here pushing

03:20 its way into the Golden State before we wrap things up on Sunday. Like I said, most spots

03:25 picking up about one to three inches of rain there in the foothills and also towards the coastal plains.

03:31 Less elsewhere throughout the state. Southern California, you will get some showers from this,

03:36 but the real story is that intense mountain snow as you see it through the Sierra. Six to ten feet

03:43 in Donner Pass and many other passes at least going more than four feet of snow. The I-5 there,

03:49 two to four feet of snow. So this is where it's really challenging for road crews to keep up with

03:53 that snowfall, even with the bulldozers and the heavy equipment. If you're not in the mountains,

03:58 say you're on the other side in Reno where we're at least at some elevation, we are looking at an

04:02 actual weather winter cast for Friday into Sunday. So this is really going to be when some of that

04:08 extra moisture pushes in Friday night. This does not include overnight tonight into tomorrow morning

04:13 and you can see we are looking at eight to twelve inches of snowfall here. So there's plenty of

04:20 shoveling to do here too. Winter's still found for some.

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