Highway 50 is open, but serious delays in aftermath of Northern California snow storm
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Northern California Winter Storm
A powerful winter storm that lasted through the holiday weekend has hit Northern California with snow and rain. Here’s the latest weather news.
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A roughly 50-mile stretch of Highway 50 between Placerville and Meyers that had been closed due to snow since Sunday reopened to traffic Monday evening, but authorities strongly discouraged mountain travel Tuesday as weather conditions created extreme delays.
Caltrans also reopened eastbound Interstate 80, to passenger vehicles and essential commercial vehicles only, shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday, with chain controls in place from Alta to the Nevada state line.
Westbound I-80 remains closed between Colfax and the Nevada state line with no estimated time of reopening.
Traffic on Highway 50 was stalled for hours Tuesday morning after a jackknifed semi-truck blocked all lanes, Caltrans said around 7:15 a.m. The incident was cleared shortly after noon, with traffic held in both directions for nearly five hours near Meyers.
Caltrans in afternoon social media posts said traffic remains gridlocked near South Lake Tahoe, due to the long closure from the jackknifed truck as well as backup from the extended I-80 closure.
South Lake Tahoe city officials in a tweet said 10-hour delays are possible and that “gas is running low” at local stations.
“Delay your travel to tomorrow,” the city wrote Tuesday afternoon.
Highway 88 in Alpine County also reopened at noon after being closed at Carson Pass for avalanche control.
Heavy snowfall stopped Monday evening in Northern California, but Caltrans, utility workers and other crews have still been plowing away mounds of snow and clearing trees, power lines and other debris from roadways.
“Right now the road is too narrow in some areas, which means emergency personnel can’t get through if there is a collision,” Caltrans District 3 said of I-80 in a tweet Tuesday morning.
According to Caltrans, other full closures on Tuesday included Highway 49 from Downieville to Sattley in Sierra County and multiple stretches of Highway 89 in El Dorado, Placer and Sierra counties.
Highway 20 remains closed in the eastbound direction at Nevada Street in Nevada County, while westbound traffic is open.
The powerful storm, which coincided with Christmas weekend, also caused an avalanche on Highway 89 between Tahoe City and River Ranch; created a mudslide that continues to close Highway 70 between Jarbo Gap in Butte County and Greenville Wye in Plumas County; and knocked out power for tens of thousands of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers in the mountains and foothills.
The heaviest snow came over the weekend and Monday, but several more inches are expected late Tuesday and early Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.
Accumulation won’t compare to the previous winter storm, but it will be a colder system dropping snow to lower elevations in the foothills and parts of the Sacramento Valley.
Power out in the mountains and foothills
Large swaths of homes and businesses in the mountains and surrounding foothills remained without power Tuesday.
Utility companies’ online outage maps as of 2:30 p.m. showed more than 90,000 without power across dozens of counties, with most of the largest outages in PG&E territory.
Close to 20,000 were without power in and near the Nevada County cities of Grass Valley and Nevada City; another 20,000 in El Dorado County, including close to 7,000 in the Placerville area, over 5,000 near Camino and more than 4,500 near Pollock Pines; and about 8,000 in Placer County, mostly near near Foresthill, Colfax and Auburn.
In El Dorado County, the Georgetown and Pollock Pines libraries were closed for the day due to weather, as well as the Shakori Animal Shelter and county behavioral health building in South Lake Tahoe due to network and phone outages, the county announced in tweets.
Placer County administrative offices in Tahoe along with its library branches in Kings Beach, Tahoe City, Colfax and Foresthill were also closed Tuesday due to snow.
The Auburn Public Library, at 350 Nevada Street, said it will remain open with extended hours Tuesday and Wednesday so residents can charge phones and other devices. Library services will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the library’s community center and bathrooms open until 7 p.m.
Placer County sheriff’s officials were also in social media posts urging residents not to call 911 for non-emergency reasons, and to call 211 instead.
This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 7:47 AM with the headline "Highway 50 is open, but serious delays in aftermath of Northern California snow storm."
