'Great Start to the Season': Sierra Snowfall at More Than 300% of Average After Major Weekend Storm

This weekend's powerful winter storm in the Sierra Nevada blanketed the Lake Tahoe basin in up to 5 feet of snow, with total snowfall so far this season at 321% of average, the National Weather Service reported on Monday.

"It's been a great start to the season up in the Sierra," said Scott McGuire, an NWS meteorologist in Reno.

The second major winter storm in less than two weeks walloped the region with blizzard conditions, blasting ridgelines with gusts topping 100 mph. The storm also drenched large swaths of lower-lying areas throughout California and Nevada, including a solid soaking of the entire Bay Area, where nearly 2 inches of rain fell in parts of Oakland and San Francisco, and more than 4 inches were recorded on Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County.

By Monday morning, the storm had departed the Bay Area, leaving behind clear skies and a prolonged cold snap, with temperatures across much of the region expected to dip into the 30s every night this week.

Now headed east, the storm is forecasted to pummel the Rockies and Plains in the coming days.

Up in the mountains, the heaviest snowfall came Saturday, shutting down a 70-mile stretch of eastbound Interstate 80 "due to zero visibility" from the foothill town of Colfax to the Nevada state line, with many other key arteries also temporarily blocked, including a stretch of Highway 89 between Tahoe City and South Lake Tahoe, Caltrans officials said.

The Sierra Avalanche Center on Monday said avalanche danger in backcountry mountain terrain remained "considerable" through early Tuesday morning. "The sheer size of the avalanche that could be triggered by a backcountry traveler today is unnerving," the site said.

In total, Donner Pass received 48.8 inches of snow in a 48-hour period and 68.7 inches over the last week, according to the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab.

The lab on Monday reported "calm and dry conditions," and said "it's looking like we'll stay dry for the foreseeable future," a cause for celebration among the region's many ski resorts.

Andrew Schwartz, the lab's lead scientist, said it's still too early to tell what the impact will be for the rest of the winter season, noting that last December's historic snowfall was followed by months of bone-dry conditions.

"The most important thing with rain and snow for this year isn't necessarily the amounts for each storm, but that it keeps happening," Schwartz said. "One of the problems that we saw last year and we've seen in years past is that we'll have these big dumps of snow and rain and then we get these long periods that are dry. And so we really just need for the storm cycle to keep giving us the occasional storm instead of these prolonged dry periods."

McGuire, from NWS, agreed, noting that lots of snow now is "unfortunately not a precursor to having a fantastic, huge winter and helping to mitigate the drought conditions."

"But with that being said," he added, "we'll absolutely take everything we can get."

This story includes reporting from The Associated Press.