Like Our Snow? Try Nevada Travelers There Face Gamble; It’s Sure Bet Here For More Snow

If you think Spokane is having too white a Christmas, consider the plight of northwestern Nevada.

There, residents are digging out from 3 to 8 feet of snow.

More snow is expected in the Inland Northwest tonight, but our Christmas storm won’t come close to matching what happened last weekend in northern California and Nevada.

“Everything right now is stuck,” said Matt Giles, at the U-Haul lot in Carson City, near the Nevada-California border. “It’s pretty bad.”

Across town, tanning shop owner Debbie Gefvert should have had customers blazing a trail to her door, but the snow was so deep, few people were venturing out on Tuesday.

“I lived in Alaska, and I’ve never seen snow like this,” she said. Three to 4 feet of new snow fell in Carson City, while as much as 8 feet was reported in the nearby mountains.

The heavy snowfall knocked out power, telephone and cable television lines in Carson City.

“Two days without cable. That’s living hell,” Gefvert said.

It’s reminiscent of last month’s ice storm in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene areas. Here, the snow is piling up in smaller amounts.

Another inch or two of snow was expected in Spokane this morning before a brief letup this afternoon. Then, a new pulse of snow is expected tonight.

Daran Rife, forecaster for the National Weather Service in Spokane, said a complicated air-flow pattern off the Pacific Ocean holds potential for heavy snow again tonight.

The weather service on Tuesday was not ready to estimate how much snow is expected, but Rife said he’s not complaining.

“I lived in the Dakotas for 10 years. This is pretty tame,” he said.

Already this season, close to 50 inches of snow have fallen in Spokane, including the accumulation overnight. That equals the average for an entire winter season.

Snow is expected in the mountains of Washington and Idaho, but rain could take over in the lower Columbia Basin, including the Tri-Cities, Pendleton, Ore., Walla Walla and Lewiston, Rife said.

He said the transition between rain and snow would probably occur in the vicinity of Pullman.

Light winds are forecast so drifting snow was not considered a big threat today, he said.

High temperatures in Spokane are expected to stay in the low- to mid-30s, but there is a chance of a warming trend early next week.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo