Record snowfall and heavy rains lash west coast from Oregon to southern California

A heavy Christmas weekend storm blanketed the mountains of northern California and Nevada in snow, causing whiteout conditions and closing highways in the Sierra Nevada.

Forecasters have warned that travel in the Sierra Nevada, the mountainous region along the California-Nevada border, could be difficult for several days. Three people were injured in a 20-car pileup on US route 395, officials near Reno said, amid limited visibility on Sunday. Farther west, a 70-mile (112km) stretch of Interstate 80 from Colfax, California, through the Lake Tahoe region to the Nevada state line was shut due to the snow, low visibility and downed trees and power lines.

The region could see 200in of snow by Tuesday morning, Schwartz told the news station.

Meanwhile, the California Department of Transportation closed many roads and warned of slippery conditions for motorists.

In California, heavy rain caused rockslides that closed more than 40 miles (64km) of coastal Highway 1 in the Big Sur region south of the San Francisco Bay Area. There was no estimate for the reopening of the scenic stretch, which is frequently shut after wet weather.

Heavy rain in southern California flooded streets and knocked down power lines Saturday, in the latest of a series of blustery storms. Powerful gusts toppled trees, damaged carports and blew a track-and-field shed from a Goleta high school into a front yard two blocks away, according to the Santa Barbara county fire department. No injuries were reported.

In the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles, crews were repairing a section of State Route 18 that washed down a hillside after heavy rain late Thursday. The closure of the major route into the Big Bear ski resort area could last for weeks, officials said.

The heavy rains and snow were welcomed in parched California, where the Sierra snowpack had been at dangerously low levels after weeks of dry weather. But the state Department of Water Resources reported on Christmas Eve that the snowpack was between 114% and 137% of normal across the range, with more snow expected.

Up to 8ft (2.4 meters) of snow was predicted at the highest elevations of the Sierra.