The snowstorm caused mountain highway closures and avalanche warnings. Winds exceeded 100 miles per hour and sent ski lift chairs in Lake Tahoe rocking.
National Weather Service meteorologist Scott McGuire in Reno said these conditions can be extreme.
“It’s definitely pretty, pretty crazy and intense winds, and snow everywhere, and it’s very dangerous. I mean, people can get disoriented very quickly; the snow piles up rapidly, and then you add in the cold temperatures on top of it,” McGuire said.
The former Olympic site, Palisades Tahoe, saw the sixth-largest snowfall total in a 24-hour period on record.
Snow is an economic driver in the region. A number of ski resorts already opened early this season, but it’s too soon to tell how the rest of winter might go.