Sierra Get 5 Inches of Snow -- in Late May

Summer may be just around the corner, but it still seems like winter in the Sierra.

A fast-moving Memorial Day weekend storm dropped up to 5 inches of snow and prompted chain controls on mountain highways early Saturday.

Controls were lifted later in the day on two major highways linking Sacramento to the Lake Tahoe area: Interstate 80 over Donner Summit and U.S. 50 over Echo Summit.

“People were not prepared for it,” said Shawn Mann, a California Highway Patrol dispatcher in Truckee, Calif. “Mother Nature is keeping us on our toes.”

Die-hard skiers and snowboarders rejoiced as they made final runs of the season at Squaw Valley, the only resort still open at Lake Tahoe. The resort closes Monday.

“I was shocked to see as much snow when I woke up,” Squaw Valley spokeswoman Savannah Cowley said. “People here were so excited that they were getting fresh tracks on Memorial Day weekend.”

The site of the 1960 Winter Games reported receiving more than 52 feet of snow this season on its upper mountain -- 15 feet more than its annual average and among the five snowiest seasons in its 57-year history.

The latest storm brought 4 to 5 inches to the resort’s upper mountain, at 8,200 feet, and 2 to 3 inches to its base, at 6,200 feet.

Mammoth Mountain, just east of Yosemite National Park, is the only other Sierra resort still open. It plans to close on the Fourth of July weekend.

Elsewhere, the storm left 2 inches of snow at Tahoe City and South Lake Tahoe, 1 inch just north of Reno and in Gardnerville, and a trace in Reno.

Snow fell off and on throughout the day in the Lake Tahoe area but was expected to taper off by today, according to the National Weather Service.

“We were in the 90s last week in Reno, and the Reno airport reported snow this morning,” Scott McGuire, a weather service forecaster, said Saturday. “The weather changes quickly out here.”

Most U.S. Forest Service campgrounds above 5,500 feet remained closed in the Lake Tahoe area because of lingering heavy snow.

In late April, the Sierra snowpack averaged 180% of normal water content for the time of year.