California blizzard shuts down roads and ski resorts as heavy snow and winds continue: Live updates

Video shows cars being pulled out after being trapped in a snow sluff just east of Echo Summit.

The highway was closed for a short time this morning. There were no injuries and crews worked quickly to reopen the roadway.

A Blizzard Warning remains in effect until midnight for elevations over 6500 feet, the NWS said.

A Winter Storm Warning is now in effect for elevations above 3000 ft, with another 1-2 ft of snow expected above 4000 ft.  More snow is expected Monday and Tuesday.

More than 100 miles of I-80 remained closed Sunday from the Nevada border to Colfax, California.

There is “no estimated time of reopening the freeway,” the California Highway Patrol said.

On Friday, as the storm arrived, hundreds of motorists were trapped in their vehicles for hours.

Video taken by a local resident and posted online shows massive snow drifts at Lake Tahoe as a blizzard continues to slam Central California.

National Weather Service meteorologist William Churchill warned of “life-threatening concern” for residents near Lake Tahoe in a social media post on Sunday.

“Moderate to heavy snow has persisted overnight across the northern Sierra Nevada,” the National Weather Service in Sacramento wrote. “Wind gusts … are continuing to result in blizzard conditions.”

Two tornadoes have touched down in Central California in just two days as a blizzard pummeled the area.

On Friday, the first tornado briefly touched down in the county of Madera, about 30 minutes north of Fresno. ABC7 reported the tornado touched down near an elementary school, forcing students to shelter in the cafeteria.

The second tornado touched down in Kings County Saturday afternoon in the south end of Corcoran around 4.37pm, according to meteorologist Carlos Molina with the National Weather Service’s Hanford office.

The tornado moved eastward and then dissipated by the time it got to US Route 99, he said.

More than 12,000 homes and businesses were without power in California early Sunday.

This is down from nearly 40,000 that morning, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us.

Around 6.5 million people are under winter weather alerts across the Mountain West, with blizzard warnings still in effect for the Sierra Nevada, CNN reported.

The blizzard has closed a 70-mile stretch of Interstate 80 near the Nevada state line for more than a day after highway officials reported stranded drivers Friday night.

“Extremely heavy snowfall rates of 2-6 inches an hour combined with very strong winds exceeding 100 mph at times will maintain impossible travel conditions in the Sierra Nevada,” the Weather Prediction Center said.

National Weather Service meteorologist William Churchill said snow totals by late Sunday would range from 5 to 12 feet, with the highest accumulations at elevations above 5,000 feet. Lower elevations were inundated with heavy rain.

He called the storm an “extreme blizzard for the Sierra Nevada, in particular, as well as other portions of Nevada and even extending into Utah and portions of western Colorado.” But he said he didn’t expect records to be broken.

More than 10 feet of snow was expected at higher elevations, National Weather Service meteorologist William Churchill said Saturday, creating a “life-threatening concern” for residents in the region around Lake Tahoe and blocking travel on the key east-west freeway.

He said that while the storm may not set records, it was an “extreme blizzard for the Sierra Nevada in particular as well as other portions of Nevada, and even extending into Utah and portions of western Colorado.”

“It’s certainly just about as bad as it gets in terms of the snow totals and the winds,” he said. “It doesn’t get much worse than that.”

The NWS warned that widespread blowing snow was creating “extremely dangerous to impossible” travel conditions, with wind gusts in the high mountains at more than 100 mph.