West storm rages from sea to mountains

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- From the crashing surf in San Diego to the blizzard whiteouts in the Sierras, it promised to be a wet and wild Monday night in California and much of the rest of the West as a series of strong winter storms continued to roll ashore off the Pacific.

High surf advisories stretched along the entire West Coast while blizzard conditions were on tap for the mountain areas as far to the east as Colorado and western Nebraska.

"Areas of significant snow can be expected in the mountains along with strong winds over ridge tops and exposed areas," the National Weather Service said in an advisory for the area near the Aspen ski resort.

"People traveling over the mountain passes ... should be prepared for winter weather and blowing snow."

Blowing snow as an understatement Monday to the west in the Lake Tahoe area where whiteout conditions and heavy snow on the roadway forced the closure of Interstate 80, the main highway between San Francisco and Reno, Nev.

"This storm is definitely significant," said Gary Murphy, an avalanche forecaster for the Alpine Meadows ski resort. "The amount of snow we've received is compounded by high winds, which deposits even more snow."

The snow wasn't entirely good news for the ski areas around Tahoe. Some resorts had to close because skiers were unable to drive to the slopes due to a near total lack of visibility in some mountainous areas. In addition, the avalanche danger in the backcountry areas of California, Idaho and Montana was building as snow drifted along ridges.

"Most areas only received a few inches of snow (during the weekend), yet this was enough to start tipping the balance creating some avalanches and other signs of instability," said Doug Chabot, a forecaster with the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center in Bozeman, Mont. "The snow pack is still in its infancy and only time will tell if it grows up into a strong lad or resembles a 90-pound weakling."

Winds gusting above 30 miles per hour were reported in the Sacramento area late Monday, and the NWS said a small tornado wrecked a garage and damaged roofs in Calaveras County.

Winds and rain also continued to soak the San Francisco area, causing scattered power outages, street flooding and a steady stream of traffic accidents.

Drivers in the Los Angeles area finally got a dose of what their fellow Californians to the north had been putting up with since last Thursday when heavy rains moved into the area at midday Monday. Commuters who made it to the office unscathed found themselves plugging along in the evening on jammed freeways that were punctuated with numerous accidents.

"At least slow down enough so that you can see the road," a California Highway Patrol sergeant in Ventura County recommended to Los Angeles television station KABC as he supervised at the scene of one the countless crashes that plagued the slick and treacherous freeways.

The rain was believed responsible for a collision involving a charter bus in Riverside County that caused at least one fatality and numerous injuries. In Orange County, a small plane crashed into a garage in Anaheim while on approach to John Wayne Airport, killing one person.

Wind warnings were posted in the inland areas of California where gusts predicted as high as 50 mph posed a serious threat to semi-trucks and other high-profile vehicles prone to capsizing in strong winds.

The wild weather was expected to continue through Tuesday with yet another storm hitting the coast Thursday. Monday's California rainmaker will by that time be blowing into the Great Lakes area.