Several backcountry skiers were missing after an avalanche in the Sierra Nevada, the authorities said, amid widespread storms that have unleashed days of heavy rain and snow across California.
Search and rescue teams were responding after reports of the avalanche in the Castle Peak area around 11:30 a.m., the Sheriff’s Office in Nevada County, Calif., said in a statement posted on social media.
Intense snowfall, high winds and low visibility were conspiring to create what scientists at the Central Sierra Snow Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, said appeared to be the worst conditions the mountain ranges have experienced in years. Two major highways in the region were shuttered, and ski resorts, citing the treacherous conditions, were closed. Avalanche warnings were in effect for a vast stretch of the mountain ranges.
High winds were blowing so much snow onto the road near Donner that visibility was near zero, the California Highway Patrol said in a social media post. “This isn’t inconvenient weather,” the agency said. “This is unsafe travel.”
By Tuesday morning, more than 28 inches of snow had fallen in the central Sierra, and another two to three feet were expected by Wednesday night, according to the Central Sierra Snow Lab.
The Hanford, Calif., office of the National Weather Service said that areas of the central and southern Sierra, including Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, could receive up to seven feet at higher elevations. At the same time, the Reno office of the Weather Service said that northeastern California could see three to five feet along the Sierra crest, one to three feet in the Sierra valleys, including Tahoe, and up to six inches in the lower valleys. Yosemite National Park officials said the cloudy weather was also likely to obscure “Firefall,” a yearly phenomenon in which the sunset briefly illuminates one of the park’s waterfalls.
High winds, dangerous surf and rain pounded other parts of the state.
The first bout of rain on Monday flooded several businesses in central Los Angeles, their owners told the news station ABC7, while severe winds sent a large tree crashing into a home farther east in Alhambra.
Mountain ranges north of Los Angeles could also receive up to 12 inches of snow, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center. Tuesday was expected to bring the heaviest precipitation to Southern California, he added, with showers and thunderstorms spreading south from the northern and central regions.
“Then after that there’s lighter precipitation into Friday when there a little bit of a break into the weekend, before maybe some more rain moves in early next week,” he said.
The Weather Prediction Center issued its lowest warning level for the risk of flash floods, a 1 on a 4-point scale, for the Central and Southern California coast through Wednesday. Forecasters said at least an inch of rain is likely, and the recent rainfall has left soils and burn scar areas particularly vulnerable to runoff, putting urban areas at higher risk for flash floods.
Evacuation warnings were in effect for areas around the burn scars left by recent fires in Los Angeles County, including the Canyon, Bethany, Eaton, Palisades, Kenneth, Sunset, Lidia, Hurst, Franklin and Bridge fires, with officials urging residents to be ready to evacuate if an order is issued.
The first round of storms, which began on Sunday, initially brought snow above 5,000 feet across Northern and Central California. Mr. Oravec said that system had moved into Southern California early on Tuesday. At the same time, a stronger storm was expected to move into the state, bringing snow to lower elevations and delivering additional heavy snowfall across the Sierra from Tuesday into Wednesday.
“Then another one comes in on Thursday,” he said. “And maybe another one again for the weekend.” Mr. Oravec added that the weekend storm could produce yet another round of heavy snowfall.
Forecasters said snow could fall at a rate of one to two inches per hour in many areas, with heavier bursts possible in parts of the central and southern Sierra Nevada. Other mountain ranges, including the Transverse Ranges, may also see heavy snow at higher elevations.
Strong winds are expected to be an added hazard. Forecasters said gusts over 100 miles an hour were expected along ridge tops, and valleys could experience gusts of up to 45 m.p.h. Combined with heavy snowfall, near-zero visibility is expected at times, especially in the Sierra Nevada.
Winter storm warnings have been in effect since Sunday, covering a broad swath from southwest Oregon to parts of Southern California through late Thursday. The National Weather Service warned of “dangerous to near impossible travel conditions” in some areas.
Nazaneen Ghaffar is a Times reporter on the Weather team.
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