Storm reports are in and they are impressive. Heavy rain fell in the western Sierra, and strong winds in the valley. Some spots even saw wind gusts over 70 mph.Â
Tuesday was an active day with both damaging winds and heavy rain, depending on what side of the mountain you live on. Inches of rain fell on Tuesday, especially on the western side of the Sierra. Shadowing lead to more wind than rain on the eastern side of Tahoe and in the Truckee Meadows.
Slide Mountain clocked a wind gust over 100 mph on Tuesday, and Washoe City clocked a wind gust of 81 mph along I-580 south on Tuesday. They even had to shut down the interstate for a while because of crashes due to the weather.
It was a windy day in the Reno area as well, with a peak wind gust of 47 mph at the airport. The higher elevations of Arrowcreek clocked a wind gust of 68 mph.
Virginia Peak clocked a wind gust of 91 mph.
Power outages were also reported, likely because of the wind.
These totals are technically for precipitation amounts that includes both rain and melted snow, however, the snow level stayed very high on Tuesday until Tuesday night when Donner did see some light snow as well.Â
Ponding is still possible in our mountain communities where snow continues to melt below 7,000’. Hydrologists are mainly concerned about huge berms of snow from last week, that are melting and could lead to nuisance flooding around poor drainage areas. Thankfully, our local rivers have already crested and conditions are improving. The Susan River crested below flood stage Tuesday night.
South Tahoe saw around an inch of rain with our latest storm, and Tahoe City got nearly two inches. A little more than four tenths fell at Boca Reservoir. The snow level was very high on Tuesday, with three and half inches of precipitation falling at Blue Canyon. Chain controls were up for Donner Tuesday night, but it was all rain before that.
Thankfully wind speeds are much lighter on Wednesday, but still breezy with gusts in the teens and 20’s. It’s still windy in the high Sierra though, with wind gusts ranging from 30-70mph. While clouds remain, it is now dry.
