Peter Morning/Associated Press
TRUCKEE, Calif. — A weekend spring storm flooded the San Francisco Bay Area, closed mountain passes in Northern California and set a single-day snowfall record for the season in the Sierra Nevada on Sunday.
The wet weather system had largely subsided out of the state by Sunday morning, but officials warned that roads could remain slippery as some areas of the Sierra Nevada mountains received about 60 centimeters of snow.
“Is there anyone on their winter bingo card whose snowiest day of the 2023/2024 season was in May?” asked the Central Sierra Snow Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, on social platform X.
Sunday's 26.4 inches (67 centimeters) of snowfall was 2.6 inches (6.6 centimeters) more than the 6.6 centimeters on March 3, the second snowiest day of the season, the institute said.
Hazardous driving conditions Saturday forced the closure of several highways near Lake Tahoe, including Interstate 80 over Donner Summit.
The National Weather Service said up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain fell in some parts of the Bay Area, and temperatures dropped into the low 40s (about 5 degrees Celsius). Wind gusts reaching 40 mph (64 kph) were reported near San Francisco on Saturday.
The storm brought light rain and strong winds to Southern California.
Drier and warmer weather was expected throughout this week.