Sierra storm could boost state, California water levels

RENO -- The calendar might say spring, but it looks like winter in the Sierra Nevada.

A powerful storm brought more heavy snow to the Sierra on Sunday, closing mountain highways and boosting the summer water outlooks for Nevada and California.

Interstate 80 over Donner Summit, the main link between Reno and northern California, was shut down because of poor visibility, California Highway Patrol officer Tony Prisco said.

Highway 88, which connects the Sacramento, Calif., and Lake Tahoe areas, was closed because of avalanche-control activities near Kirkwood, Calif.

The only other major trans-Sierra highway in the region, U.S. 50 over Echo Summit, was closed off Sunday because of avalanche-control efforts, Prisco said.

"The big problem is we're getting these massive amounts of wind up on top, and that's what's really causing problems," he said. "It's been snowing heavily all day long and hasn't let up at all. When you add the snow and wind together, it wipes things out."

Highway 89 was closed for more than two hours after a minor avalanche covered both lanes near Alpine Meadows just north of Tahoe, authorities said. No vehicles were trapped, and no injuries were reported.

The Boreal ski resort atop Donner Summit reported 3 feet of new snow over a 24-hour period ending early Sunday and up to 6 feet of new snow in recent days. The resort has received more than 600 inches of snow this season, close to its record of 662 inches of snow in 1994-95.

The snowfall pushed the water content of the Lake Tahoe basin's snowpack up to 158 percent of average for the date. The Sierra snowpack provides much of the runoff water for homes, businesses and farms in Nevada and California.

"We're sitting in a wonderful spot, particularly compared to what we've been looking at the last several years" when the region had a below-average snowpack, chief deputy water master Chad Blanchard told the Reno Gazette-Journal.