Winter Storms Hit West Hard

A storm dumped more than a foot of snow in the mountains of northern Nevada on Friday, closing schools and stranding truck drivers on Interstate 80.

The rain turned to snow in Reno at midmorning, slowing traffic and hampering visibility on the busy interstate. Some 50 trucks were stopped at the Alamo truck stop in Sparks, Nev.

“I’ve been driving for 35 years in 40 states and I’ve only had to chain up twice,” trucker Oscar Teran said. “Two months ago I moved to Las Vegas because they told me they never get snow out of Las Vegas and the first time I come, look out, lots of snow.”

Chains were mandatory on I-80 over Donner Summit where up to 18 inches of snow was reported at Boreal ski area. The Highway Patrol said blowing snow had dropped visibility to nearly nothing south of Reno.

School was canceled in the Lake Tahoe area after a night of blizzard conditions that included winds of up to 85 mph.

The same storm system toppled trees and left thousands of homes and businesses without power in the Pacific Northwest on Thursday.

Gusts along the Oregon coast exceeded 75 mph, and the Coast Guard said 14- to 16-foot waves broke along the shore. Winds reaching 50 mph generated 8-foot waves in Bellingham, Wash., while heavy snow closed about 40 miles of Interstate 5 from southern Oregon south to Mt. Shasta City, Calif.

In Washington, a record 2.12 inches of rain fell Thursday in Tacoma, easily besting the mark of 1.38 inches set for the date in 1966. In Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, the 1.08 inches of rain that fell Thursday and early Friday broke the previous record of 0.86 inches set in 1929.

About 8,000 customers were without power around Olympia, Puyallup and the Seattle suburbs early Friday, said Angie Lundberg, a spokeswoman for Puget Sound Energy, western Washington’s largest utility.

An additional 500 customers were without power in Oregon’s Mapleton area.

Mudslides were reported on two roads in Washington, near Olympia and north of Bremerton.

A tree blew down across the northbound lanes of Interstate 405 in the suburbs east of Seattle, blocking traffic for about an hour.