Interstate 80 over Donner Summit — the main highway and freight route between California's Central Valley and Nevada — was shut to westbound traffic late on Friday night, November 13, as the Sierra Nevada's first major winter storm of the season buried the pass in snow and Caltrans imposed its toughest chain controls on trucks.
The live Caltrans chain-control feed, checked at 9:40 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, showed I-80 closed westbound at Gold Ranch Road, near the California–Nevada state line, with no reopening time given. A second live reading of the Caltrans District 3 report at 11:10 p.m. Pacific Time said westbound I-80 was closed to all tractor-semitrailer combinations from the Nevada state line to 4.7 miles west of Kingvale, in Placer County, because of snow, and that truck-trailer combinations were advised to use an alternate route.
For trucks that were still moving, the requirement was the strictest one Caltrans sets: truck chain requirements were at maximum for all trucks using Donner Summit on the stretch from Donner Lake Interchange, Kingvale, Rainbow, Truckee and Yuba Gap to the state line at Gold Ranch, at elevations between about 5,019 and 6,404 feet. Truck-trailer combinations were being turned around at the chain-control points at Mogul and at Applegate because of traction problems over the summit, trucks without maximum chains in their possession were being turned back at the Applegate screening point, and permit loads were prohibited over the summit.
Eastbound traffic was still moving under R2 chain controls late Friday night: chains or traction devices were required on all vehicles except four-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive vehicles with snow-tread tires on all four wheels, and even those vehicles had to carry traction devices in the chain-control area. Checkpoints sit at Kingvale for eastbound traffic and at the Donner Lake and Truckee interchanges for westbound traffic, and on storm days the screening itself adds a long queue even when the pass is open.
The storm behind the closure
The National Weather Service office in Sacramento issued a Winter Storm Warning at 12:01 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, November 13, running until 10 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, November 14, for the Sierra Nevada above about 5,000 to 6,000 feet, including Interstate 80, U.S. Highway 50, State Route 4 and State Route 108, and for the southern Cascades including Lassen Volcanic National Park. Forecasters expected snow totals of up to one foot, with up to two feet on the highest peaks, and winds gusting as high as 60 miles per hour — strong enough for downed tree branches, localized power outages and near-whiteout conditions on the passes.
Snow levels were forecast to start between 6,500 and 7,500 feet on Friday before dropping to between 5,500 and 6,500 feet by Saturday morning, with the heaviest snow expected Friday night into Saturday morning — exactly the window in which the westbound closure and the maximum truck controls took effect.
Around Lake Tahoe, the Weather Service office in Reno, Nevada, also upgraded its warning, forecasting about 12 inches of heavy, wet snow above 7,000 feet, up to six inches below that elevation and as much as 20 inches along the crest west of the lake. In Mono County, a separate warning called for one to two feet of snow above 7,000 feet, ridge gusts of 60 to 80 miles per hour, and gusts of 45 to 55 miles per hour along U.S. Highway 395.
Do not start over the summit on a stale report. Chain controls and holds change through the day as spin-outs and jackknifed trucks are cleared. Check Caltrans QuickMap or call 1-800-427-7623 before moving, carry maximum chains, and expect screening queues at Kingvale, Truckee and Applegate. Most Donner closures last a few hours, but waiting at a hold point usually beats detouring in a storm.
This is an escalation of the system Awaaz Punjab reported on November 12, when a winter storm watch was first posted for the Sierra; the watch has now become a warning, and the warning has become an actual closure of the interstate — the sequence drivers on this corridor plan their week around.
Our earlier report on the storm watch for this same system, and what forecasters expected it to bring to I-80 and Highway 50, is here: Sierra winter storm watch, November 12
Donner Summit, at 7,239 feet, is one of the snowiest interstate crossings in the United States, and I-80 is the freight spine between Sacramento, the Central Valley's farms and warehouses, and Reno and the routes east. A large share of the Punjabi trucking community in California runs this corridor, and a Friday-night closure lands at the worst point in the freight week: weekend loads stop where they are held, delivery windows slip, and drivers burn hours waiting for controls to ease. Forecasters say a second, colder storm is expected late Sunday into Monday, so even after Saturday's warning expires at 10 a.m., the pass may not stay clear for long. Caltrans had given no reopening time for the westbound closure as of late Friday night.