A powerful, multiple day winter storm in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains over the weekend brought with it as much as 10 feet of snow and wind gusts of almost 200 mph causing power outages, closing highways and burying ski resorts.
The blizzard began late last week but its most intense conditions occurred on Sunday, when wind gusts reached 190 mph and whiteout conditions left hundreds of people stranded in their cars for several hours.
Yosemite National Park was closed and a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 80 was also shut down due to the storm.
Schools were canceled Monday and National Weather Service meteorologist William Churchill warned of ‘life-threatening concern’ for residents near Lake Tahoe, calling the storm an ‘extreme blizzard.’
Weather tracker: Powerful blizzard strikes California
California was hit by a powerful blizzard at the weekend that affected the Sierra Nevada mountain range. A blizzard is a combination of dry, powdery snow and strong winds, and it can also involve lightning. Under its most intense bursts, the blizzard that struck California produced up to 152mm (6in) of snow an hour and gusts of up to 190mph (306km/h).
During the early hours of Saturday morning, the Mammoth Mountain ski area was closed due to 0.6 metres (almost 2ft) of snow. The National Weather Service described this event as life threatening. The snow continued to fall overnight, with up to 3.7 metres sweeping the highest parts of the mountain range by Sunday morning.
Warnings for extreme avalanches were put in place across the greater Tahoe region until that afternoon, and people were advised to remain indoors. Although conditions look more settled at the start of this week, there is a risk of further snowfall on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, northern India also experienced significant snowfall and rainfall in recent days. Over high ground in Himachal Pradesh, more than 500mm of snow was recorded early last week, leading to 350 road closures, including four national highways. The snowfall has cut power to many, and people have been urged to not leave their homes unless necessary due to avalanche concerns.
On the lower ground, heavy rainfall caused travel disruption, with more than 80mm recorded in the town of Manali and about 30mm across other parts of the state. A red warning for thunderstorms was issued on Saturday.
Thunderstorms are also expected to affect the United Arab Emirates from Monday night until Tuesday afternoon, bringing hourly rainfall totals of about 10-15mm, along with hail and lightning. The strong winds that will accompany these storms will blow sand and dust, in turn reducing visibility and creating rough conditions at sea.
Later in the week, temperatures are likely to drop across the Persian Gulf to 10C (50F) below the seasonal average across Oman, the UAE, southern Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
