Blizzard - 9" of dry, powdery snow with temps in the 20s along with 50 mph winds. We had drifts over 6' in our driveway.
This was during the morning hours on April 6th, mind you.
Edit: it was a bona-fide blizzard.
Even the locals out there are talking this up. To go with the many feet of snow, there's the winds. Not the breeze we're experiencing- they're expecting 55 to 80 mph winds in town and 100+ out on the hill.
60 in Maytown with a break in precip for the time being. Just stepped outside here at work a few minutes ago and holy cow, it's humid for February. Dew is 56.
I think you're both right - I always thought it was loudest from overnight through the following morning. I can remember some incredibly loud storms in the 2am - 10am timeframe over the years.
We arrived on May 15th. I wanted to see snow but didn't want to run the risk of getting stranded. We had so much on our list and as much as I would have loved to stay longer...just too much to see out west. When we made our plans we obviously had no idea we would be going at the end of the most epic Sierra snow season in recorded history. Had we gone just 4 weeks sooner there was nearly 80" more on the ground from when we were there.
I've been reading the AFD's for out there - I had to laugh when they mentioned that "snowfall rates would be 2-3"/hour on Friday...and then on Friday night into early Saturday, we expect to see heavier snow move in with amounts reaching 5"/hour or more.
2 to 3"/hour rates out there are considered pedestrian.
Radar says you're in for potentially 2 more rounds - first is hot on the tail of the current storms, then there might be a break before the next wave moves in later.
We are pretty much right in the middle of the advertised epic pattern that was showing several weeks ago. The severe weather reports from the past 24 hours have been just that.