Stormy weather at Tahoe leads to school closures, travel, ski resort impacts

TRUCKEE, Calif. — The strong storm system moving into Lake Tahoe on Tuesday is leading to travel impacts, school closures and possible lift delays at some ski resorts.

Lake Tahoe and Tahoe Truckee unified school districts have canceled classes for the day while Douglas and Washoe county schools at the lake are still on.

Chains and/or snow tires are required on most roads on Tahoe’s northern and eastern shores and on mountain passes, including Mount Rose, Spooner, Daggett and Echo summits, and on Interstate 80 through Truckee. With the snow dumping, more restrictions are likely to go into effect.

No chain controls are in place for Tahoe’s West Shore or through South Lake Tahoe.

California State Route 88 is closed at Pickett’s Junction to Kirkwood. Caltrans has been performing road clearing and avalanche control at Carson Pass and Carson Spur.

SR-89 is closed at Emerald Bay.

For road conditions, call 511 or visit https://www.nvroads.com or https://quickmap.dot.ca.gov.

The National Weather Service has a winter storm warning in place through 4 a.m. Wednesday and as of early Tuesday morning are still calling for up to 3 feet of snow above 7,000 feet and 10 to 20 inches for the basin. Strong winds with gusts up to 45 mph, and more than 100 mph for Sierra ridges, will lead to waves up to 4 feet on the lake and difficult driving conditions.

Wind on Tuesday morning may lead to delays at area ski resorts with Palisades Tahoe reporting that several lifts on both mountains will be starting the day with a wind hold.

Heavenly Mountain Resort also reported wind may affect lift operations on Tuesday.

The service expects the heaviest snowfall through 2 p.m. Tuesday with bands of snow showers continuing through the evening.

Looking ahead, a quick system on Wednesday will bring chances for light snow that could impact travel with dry conditions expected for Thursday and Friday before the “storm train” continues.

The service is seeing a couple of systems that could impact the Tahoe region this weekend.

“Snow looks to mainly impact the Sierra Saturday and Sunday, with western Nevada seeing light rain. There is the potential for another round of Sierra snow and possibly valley snow Sunday into Monday, with wind impacts to aviation and recreation.”

Bill Rozak is editor for the Sierra Sun. He may be reached at brozak@swiftcom.com.