Caltrans announced Monday that all three High Sierra passes in the Mother Lode were temporarily closed following a winter dusting that was expected to continue overnight into Tuesday.
The agency closed the 9,624-foot Sonora Pass on Highway 108 at 9 a.m. Monday after roughly a couple inches of snow fell overnight. The temporary closure in Tuolumne County was at Kennedy Meadows Road, 55 miles east of Sonora.
Plans were announced to temporarily close Tioga Road and Tioga Pass on Highway 120, as well as Glacier Point Road, in Yosemite National Park at 5 p.m. Monday. Temporary closure of Ebbetts Pass from the Lake Alpine reservoir to Highway 89 in Alpine County was announced at 2:35 p.m.
Caltrans said there were no estimated reopening times for any of the passes as of Monday afternoon.
There was a winter weather advisory for more snow and winds gusting to 45 miles per hour in effect through 10 p.m. Tuesday for the north and central Sierra Nevada mountain range, from Arnold, Twain Harte, and Buck Meadows east to the California-Nevada line.
“We have some lingering snow showers through Tuesday afternoon,” Idamis Del Valle-Shoemaker, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Sacramento, said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “Dry conditions for Wednesday through Thursday. There are precipItation chances possible Friday. Saturday and Sunday look dry.”
Forecasters predicted Central Sierra snow levels down to 8,500 feet Monday and down to 5,000 feet Tuesday, with 20% to 35% probability of at least 6 inches at pass level on Highways 4 and 108.
At lower elevations in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, isolated thunderstorms with lightning, gusty winds, and hail were possible through Monday evening, with rain shower chances extended into Tuesday.
It’s full-on winter in the high Central Sierra, with daytime highs in the 30s and overnight lows down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit through Wednesday at Sonora Pass. At the same it’s still autumn in Sonora and other foothills towns this week, with daytime highs in the 50s and 60s, and overnight lows in the 40s.
