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Winter retains its icy grip on the Sierra Nevada mountains, another 8 inches (plus) fell in Twain Harte on Thursday.

This morning, the sun is shining, the sky is a beautiful shade of blue and the trees once again are snow-covered. The wet, black pavement makes a stark contrast against the blanket of snow. The snow began falling early Wednesday evening, gently at first, then gradually it picked up and was falling fairly hard for most of the night. But that was last night.

Today is a different day. Today would be a perfect day to spend playing on snow-covered foothills. At 4,000 feet we received 8-10 inches. The main roads are wet but clear of snow accumulation. However, the temperature is currently 30 degrees, so road warriers will want to slow it down and keep an eye out for patches of ice for at least the next hour or two.

Travelers will want to be sure to carry chains, especially if you plan to travel further East than Twain Harte on Highway 108. It is a little late in the season to be purchasing chains but most local Auto Parts stores and tire stores will still have them in stock. Auto Zone still had most sizes. Tire chains are no longer in stock at Walmart.

It’s a beautiful day outside — so long as you can admire it from the window as you sit in front of a roaring fire. Pooh would call this a very blustery day.

The roads aren’t too bad either, so long as you have decent tires and keep it slow. I slide around in the driveway a little but only because I got tired of shoveling and decided to just drive right through it.

In just the past couple of minutes the wind has really picked up.  It appears to be snowing from West to East rather than straight down. With all this sudden gusting wind, I’m concerned, not only about possible power outages but about the most recent Mymotherlode report:

The National Weather Service has issued a Significant Weather Advisory for the Motherlode through 5:30 PM.  

The line of storms were last reported just west of Milton in Calaveras County and moving east at thirty mph.

Small hail was reported with these storms along with very heavy rain. Funnel clouds will also be possible.

If threatening weather approaches your area, take shelter in a sturdy building.

While there is no mention of Tuolumne County that doesn’t mean we are in the clear. Sometimes I really miss not having television.

Many people are still without power at this hour.

Thursday Afternoon Power Outages

PG&E Spokesperson Nicole Liebelt says there are currently 4,945 customers in Tuolumne County without electricity mostly in the Twain Harte and Mi Wuk Village areas. 1,580 are without power in Twain Harte, 1,300 are in Mi Wuk Village, 680 in Pinecrest, 675 in Long Barn, 400 in Sonora, 200 in Groveland, 80 in Jamestown and 30 in Tuolumne City.

In Calaveras County there are just over 500 residents without power. These PG&E customers are mostly in the Arnold area with 475. Avery has 50 customers without electricity and 15 are in Valley Springs.

I will try to provide updates as often as I can but if this weather keeps up, we will have more power outages and worse. Twain Harte is really taking a beating up this way. Most people in the area are not prepared for long-term severe weather. I am worried about some of our more elderly neighbors, who may be struggling to get out for needed supplies.

I don’t know about you but I’m beginning to feel like a broken record. There are just so many ways to say, “Hey, man it’s snowing mountains of the white stuff.  I think the last time I saw it snow this hard was during the blizzard of 1978 — the very weekend I decided to take the plunge into matrimony.

I should have taken that as an omen for things to come but of course in my young life, I didn’t pay much attention to omens, or luck for that matter. During what we have come to call the blizzard of 78, we had 12 foot high snow drifts. We had to climb out of an upstairs window to get out of the house. We were a week trying to get unburied.

Well, we certainly don’t have that much snow on the ground — yet. Oh, and I am so thankful for that. My back aches just thinking about shoveling out from under all this. I really thought we were in the clear last night, when it started pouring rain. It rained hard for a good deal of the night. I thought gee, wouldn’t this be nice, if it just kept raining all day, it would warm up some and all this snow would just melt away.

Ha! No such luck. Here we go with this luck thing again. As soon as the sun came up — well, it was daylight for sure but I don’t recall actually seeing the sun — the snow returned with a vengeance. It’s been snowing all day long and no matter how long you shovel, moments after you leave one spot, you can’t see the ground any more.

About an hour ago we lost cell service totally. I’m certain it’s storm related. The lights have flickered on and off several times again today and we lost power for a brief moment early this morning. So far, the power is holding.

Mymotherlode reports:

PG&E reports that 9,585 customers are without electricity in Tuolumne County. There are 4,344 without power in the greater Sonora area (including Cedar Ridge and Phoenix Lake), 2,111 without in Twain Harte, 1,220 in Tuolumne, 680 in Mi Wuk, 675 in Long Barn, 230 in Soulsbyville and 130 in Pinecrest.

Just as I was posting this — wouldn’t you know it — the power went out. Fortunately, our power came right back on. I had to get this posted before we lose power again. As luck would have it — I have none — my Dr. Heater quit working after the power outage.

We’ve tried various types of space heaters, since our last home had baseboard heaters. We used them one month and I just about had a stroke when the electric bill arrived. Since then we’ve used the oil-filled radiators, ceramic heaters, micathermic heaters and these infrared heaters.

Out of all the heaters we’ve tried, we really like the Dr. Heater the best. It’s economical to operate and Shawn even got mine working again. He said he pressed and held both the “Standby” & “Mode” buttons together for a few seconds. The Dr. Heater reset and it started working again.

My feet are still cold though. For some reason whenever it snows, my feet get cold and refuse to warm up. I hope you are staying warm!

Enjoy the snow!