It was a white Christmas

About 4 inches of snow fell on the Carson City area Thursday morning when a Pacific storm moved in at daybreak.

The snow reached the valley floor along with strong winds, which also was responsible for Interstate 80 over Donner Summit being shut down for several hours.

“We’ve got somewhat of a high pressure system moving in Thursday afternoon into the weekend,” said Shane Snyder, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno.

Snyder said snow totals are measured every 24 hours at Kirkwood Ski Resort, with 22 inches falling in the latest report on Thursday, most of that in the last 12 hours of recording.

“The weather band should clear (this) morning and be only light snow fall,” Snyder said. “The high-pressure system will be in for an extended period of time, which will be more of a normal weather pattern. Then there should only be a light chance of precipitation over the weekend. Nothing heavy like we saw Thursday.”

Snyder said the storm activity will shift north of California and Oregon by the weekend, making travel better for those returning to California. A daytime high for Carson City today should be around 30, with Saturday pushing the upper 40s and Sunday’s temperature back into the 40s.

“I like when we forecast something and it happens,” Snyder said. “It feels good when you get it right.

“But not so much to drive in.”

Today’s weather calls for partly sunny skies with a high of 29 with west winds 5-10 mph becoming east. Friday night will be mostly cloudy with a low around 13 and a southwest wind around 5 mph.

Saturday will be mostly cloudy with highs in the mid-30s with a west wind between 5-10 mph, and Sunday will be partly sunny with a high around 40.

For the latest information on road and weather conditions while in Nevada, dial 511.

• Contact Rhonda Costa at rcosta@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1223.