Tahoe braces for another wintry blast; 5 die in medivac plane crash
TRUCKEE -- With little to chance to catch their breath, Lake Tahoe residents and visitors braced Sunday for another wave of blizzard conditions promising more than 5 feet of new snow over the next 72 hours.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for a wide swath of the snowbound Sierra from 10 a.m. Sunday to 10 a.m. Monday.
From there conditions would deteriorate further evolving into a blizzard warning until 4 a.m. Wednesday.
During that span, "total snow accumulations of 2 to 3 feet, except 4 to 6 feet above 7000 feet," NWS forecasters warned.
"Winds gusting as high as 55 mph with over 100 mph along Sierra ridgetops," they added.
After years of drought, the Sierra has had an overabundance of snow this year. Many areas at the higher elevations have already gotten 34 feet this year.
At the UC Sierra Snow Lab near Donner Summit, the researchers had recorded 36.9 feet and can easily topped the 48 feet accumulated in the epic snow year of 2017.
An avalanche warning has also been issued for the Sierra Nevada backcountry around Lake Tahoe. Nearly 2 feet of new snow had fallen by Friday and up to another 5 feet was expected when another storm moves in with the potential for gale-force winds and high-intensity flurries Sunday.
"A double shot of higher snowfall rates will occur Monday afternoon into the evening and again late Tuesday morning into Tuesday night," the weather service warned. "Through this duration there is a higher chance (70-80%) of significant snow accumulations upwards of 4 to 6 feet of snowfall will be possible along the Sierra crest."
Organizers of the FIS Ski World Cup Giant Slalom event at Palisades Tahoe will be carefully monitoring the conditions to see if two runs scheduled for Sunday can be contested.
Difficult travel was also expected on the mountain passes of I-80 and Highway 50.
"Chain control is back up on I-80 over Donner Summit! And this upcoming storm just got elevated, it's about to get serious around here," the CHP office in Truckee tweeted. "A blizzard warning has been issued which will bring extremely dangerous driving conditions in the Sierras."
Meanwhile, the stormy weather has also taken a human toll.
All five people aboard a medical transport flight, including a patient, were killed in a plane crash Friday night in a mountainous area in northern Nevada.
The Lyon County Sheriff's office said authorities began receiving calls about the crash near Stagecoach, Nevada, around 9:15 p.m. and found the wreckage two hours later. Stagecoach, a rural community home to around 2,500 residents, is about 45 miles southeast of Reno.
Care Flight, which provides ambulance service by plane and helicopter, said the dead included the pilot, a flight nurse, a flight paramedic, a patient and a patient's family member.
Barry Duplantis, president and CEO of the company, said Saturday afternoon that relatives of all five victims had been notified, the Reno Gazette Journal reported.
"We send our deepest condolences to their families," Duplantis said.
The crash occurred amid a winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service in Reno for large swaths of Nevada, including parts of Lyon County.
The weather service said it was expecting heavy snow, wind gusts of up to 65 mph (105 kph) and periods of whiteout conditions between 4 a.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Sunday.
"It's a pretty mountainous region," Lyon County Sgt. Nathan Cooper said. "Especially with the weather being the way it is right now, it's not very good."
The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday morning on Twitter that it is sending a seven-member team of investigators to the crash site. The NTSB is expected release more information Sunday at a news conference.
