Another blast of winter slams into the West

As much of the country awoke to a welcome reprieve from heavy snowfall and ice-slickened roads, a new winter storm in the West snarled holiday traffic and darkened lights on Christmas trees in thousands of homes Thursday.

In the Sierra Nevada, heavy snow and whiteout conditions led police to shut down an 80-mile stretch of Interstate 80 for several hours between the California-Nevada line and Applegate, Calif. The California Highway Patrol told drivers to be prepared for slow going.

About 10,000 Salt Lake City-area residents were left without electricity to light their Christmas trees Thursday morning after nearly a foot of snow fell in the midst of frigid temperatures. Utilities managed to restore power within the hour.

The snowstorm also prompted winter storm warnings across western Colorado and a blizzard warning in the southwestern corner of the state.

“It’s going to be a heck of a storm,” said Chris Cuoco, senior forecaster for the National Weather Service’s Grand Junction office. “We’re expecting significant snowfall in all the mountains of Colorado. Even the valleys are going to see 4-plus inches of snow.”

Up to 20 inches of snow was forecast for parts of southwestern Colorado overnight, along with wind gusts of up to 80 mph.

The mountains around Lake Tahoe were blanketed with about 2 feet of snow, bringing totals at some resorts in the last two weeks to 10 feet.

“This is one of the snowiest Christmas holiday periods I can remember,” said Homewood Mountain Resort general manager Kent Hoopingarner.

The snow proved deadly for at least one skier Thursday. An avalanche killed a 21-year-old man at the Squaw Valley resort in California.

A pair of skiers at the Mount Rose ski resort south of Reno went missing Thursday afternoon. The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said it had been in contact with the two by cellphone, but concerns grew as temperatures plummeted to single digits and winds increased at nightfall.

In the upper Northwest, which was hammered by storms over the last week, the weight of snow, ice and water collapsed the roof of Capital High School early Thursday in Olympia, Wash. Assistant Fire Chief Greg Wright estimated that more than 2,500 square feet of roof fell into the building. No one was injured.

Spokane, Wash., broke a record Thursday for December snowfall. As of 4 p.m., the city had received 46.2 inches of snow, smashing the previous record of 42.7 inches set in 1996, said Laurie Nisbet of the National Weather Service.

Winds gusting to more than 30 mph cut power to thousands of homes and businesses in New Hampshire on Thursday, two weeks to the day after a devastating ice storm knocked out power across much of the region. The utilities Unitil and Public Service Co. of New Hampshire said the outages affected more than 100 communities.

Nearly a dozen flights were canceled Thursday at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, but no delays were reported, aviation officials said.

In New Jersey, a 40-foot tree fell on the car of a Massachusetts family headed to a Christmas celebration early Thursday, killing a woman and her son and injuring two young daughters. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the tree to fall, but they said winds in the area were blowing about 40 mph at the time of the accident.

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Not so frightful

Southern California’s storm doesn’t live up to predictions. REGION, B3