More Snow for California, Colorado & Utah

More snow is in the forecast for California's High Country into the weekend after heavy snow caused travel trouble on I-80, and U.S. 50. New snow and unstable slopes also lead to the death of a skier at the Palisades Tahoe Ski resort near Lake Tahoe on Wednesday morning. A 66 year old was killed when he was caught in an avalanche on the mountain. Now, more snow is coming and winter alerts (including avalanche alerts in Utah) are in place for much of the Southwest.

Additional snowfall is expected for California's mountains, which is much needed given that we are only about 35% of average for the amount of snow depth in the Sierra as we would like to be for this time of year. Upwards of 1-2' is likely for the entire spine of the Sierra with locally higher totals around Lake Tahoe/Truckee.

We are being impacted with two waves of snow. The first is already into Utah and Colorado through Friday with mostly mountain snow. It will be quiet for much of the day in California before wave #2 arrives Friday night and continues through Saturday with steady snow for the higher elevations and rain for the foothills and valleys. The energy from wave #2 then makes it into the intermountain west of Nevada, Utah, northern Arizona and Colorado Saturday into Sunday with heavy snow anticipated for the Wahsatch range of Utah and Rockies of Colorado.