The endless winter keeps holding on

Tuesday, April 14, 1998 | 9:09 a.m.

A wintry system brought locally heavy snow to the northern Sierra overnight with up to 2 feet piling up at the higher elevations and 6-12 inches below 7,000 feet.

Enough snow fell to make chains mandatory on Interstate-80 over Donner Summit and on U.S. 50 over Echo Summit. Westbound I-80 was closed briefly by accidents.

Chains or snow tires were required on most Sierra roadways, where occasionally heavy snow combined at times with winds to 60 mph, creating miserable driving conditions.

Truckee, Calif., along I-80, received 8 inches overnight while Kirkwood ski area to the south had 20-24 inches.

It was enough snow to produce a springtime avalanche advisory along the eastern slopes of the Sierra above 6,800 feet, where the danger of snow slides was considered to be high in the back country outside developed ski areas, according to Bob Moore, snow avalanche forecaster for the U.S. Forest Service in Truckee.

And a glimpse of blue skies late Monday didn't mean any letup.

The winter weather advisory remained in effect through Tuesday from the Lake Tahoe and Truckee areas south through Mono County, where another 4-6 inches fell on Monday.

The next wave of the storm was pushing toward the central Sierra, where 6-12 inches of new snow were forecast by morning above 7,000 feet with 2-4 inches below that.

Even the western valleys were not likely to be spared, as the weather service said the cold storm could leave 1-2 inches of snow accompanied by winds of 15-30 mph in the Reno-Carson City area to 60 mph over the higher peaks.

The weather was expected to remain unsettled through Tuesday with slow improvement after that in both the unseasonable precipitation and the below-normal temperatures.