Overnight snow turns Carson City into a parking lot

Tom Gardner

Friday, Nov. 10, 2000 | 9:24 a.m.

MINDEN, Nev. - People in western Nevada who woke up to a snowy surprise on Thursday got another shock on Friday.

Heavy snow falling during the morning commute slowed traffic to a crawl through Carson City and brought it to a halt on Lakeview Hill north of the capital city.

Some 4-6 inches on top of ice produced a parking lot as drivers ranging from everyday drivers to big rig operators pulled to the side to wait for the snow to ease off or the elusive snow plow to venture past.

In a reverse of normal snow patterns, areas in the Sierra around Lake Tahoe got less snow than the valleys to the east, although Friday's storm dropped a little more of what ski areas were looking for.

"It's a rather large low pressure system that covers a lot of terrain all the way from Oregon down the Sierra Crest," said Steve Brown, the meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service office in Reno said.

"It's a little more than we thought," he added on Thursday. "An impulse within the large storm from the south end of Lake Tahoe down toward Yerington set off heavier snow activity."

While the lighter amounts that fell around Reno and Sparks were fairly typical for the midway point in autumn, "the heavier snow around Carson, Gardnerville and Yerington was a little unusual," Brown said.

As motorists crept past the state capitol on Friday, their counterparts in Reno 20 miles to the north had blue skies and dry pavement.

Little change was predicted before the latter part of the weekend.

"It's rather slow moving and we'll continue to see snow or showers into Saturday," Brown said.