Winter wallops spring in season turf battle

Sandra Chereb

Thursday, April 8, 1999 | 4:15 a.m.

RENO, Nev. -- Winter continued to wallop the Sierra and western Nevada on Thursday in its week-long turf battle with spring. And spring was the obvious loser, as heavy snow and blustery winds annihilated any immediate attempts by the warmer, gentler season to stake its rightful claim.

Travel across the Sierra was difficult if not impossible. Interstate 80 over Donner Summitt, U.S. 50 over Echo Summit and California 88 over Carson Pass were closed for much of the day because of heavy snow. Chains or snow tires were required on all other mountain roadways, but driving was treacherous as heavy snow combined with blustery winds created poor visibility.

"You know what hurt was those two weeks when we had really nice weather. I was wearing shorts," said Judy Miller, service manager at the Donner Park Unocal on I-80 in Truckee, Calif.

"It's a little disconcerting but we go through this every year," she said. "It's tricky. It's the mountains. It's still beautiful."

A winter storm warning was in effect into Thursday night from the northern Sierra and Lake Tahoe area to Mono County, Calif., in the central Sierra. The National Weather Service predicted higher elevations could pick up more than 2 feet of snow from the storm.

A snow advisory was issued for the Reno-Carson City area, where 2 to 4 inches was expected on the valley floors.

Winter storm warnings also were issued for all of northeastern Nevada beginning Thursday night, when heavy snow was expected to push into Elko, White Pine, Lander and Eureka counties.

Winter's staunch defiance of the calendar left many northern Nevadans weary for the promise of warmer days. In the past week, a series of wet, Pacific storms has dumped anywhere from 3 to 7 feet of snow in the mountains and cloaked the valleys of western Nevada in a dreary mixture of snow, drizzle and fog.

"If the sun doesn't shine soon I'm going to kill something," said Melanie Foster of Reno as she bemoaned the floppy blooms on her flowers that until recently trumpeted the coming of spring.

"My daffodils are so beat up," she said.

But warmer days and sunshine were not in the immediate future. The forecast called for a break in the storm clouds on Friday, but another system packing yet another punch of winter was expected to arrive later in the weekend.

"Why couldn't this happen in October and November and December and January and February?" asked Jan Budden, of Minden.

Tom Perkins, also of Minden, preferred to look on the bright side.

"It's one more week I don't have to water my lawn," he said. "I love this kind of stuff. It reminds me of being in Nevada."

So when will spring get here?

"It looks like the forecasted temperatures for midweek next week are back up in the 60s, so hopefully that will mean an improvement," said Jim Fischer, meteorologist with the weather service in Reno.

"But whether it's temporary or not, that's another question."