TRUCKEE, Calif. (AP) — A weekend spring storm that drenched the San Francisco Bay Area and closed Northern California mountain highways also set a single-day snowfall record for the season on Sunday in the Sierra Nevada.
The wet weather system had mostly moved out of the state by Sunday morning, but officials warned that roads would remain slick after around two feet of snow fell in some areas of the Sierra.
“Did anyone have the snowiest day of the 2023/2024 season being in May on their winter bingo card?” the University of California’s Central Sierra Snow Lab asked on the social platform X.
The 26.4 inches of snowfall Sunday at the lab, near Donner Summit, beat the second snowiest day of the season — March 3rd — by 2.6 inches.
Treacherous driving conditions on Saturday forced the closure of several highways near Lake Tahoe, including Interstate 80 over Donner Pass.
Flood advisories were issued for parts of the Bay Area, where up to an inch of rain fell while temperatures dipped into the low 40s, the National Weather Service said. Wind gusts reaching 40 mph were reported Saturday near San Francisco.
Drier and warmer conditions were expected throughout the week.