Here Comes the Snow

It started raining last night and rained most of today, albeit never that heavily (which is good because drainage here is poor, being an old lake bed and all that). Late this afternoon, as the light began to fade, the rain stopped.

( Because it Started Snowing Instead )

Our little snowfall here is minor compared to what's happening up on Donner Summit, where I saw that Caltrans had closed I-80 at the Nevada state line westbound and Colfax eastbound. US-50 has been intermittently closed for avalanche control. Amtrak #6, the eastbound California Zephyr is running more than four hours late tonight. (The westbound this morning passed Fernley ten minutes early.) From the radio traffic, they're not likely to make any time, particularly as while I compose this entry I'm listening to a Union Pacific freight train stopped west of Fernley while the poor conductor had to walk the length of his train to inspect it due to a train-defect detector going off. The conductor could find nothing wrong, and fortunately the dispatcher gave the train permission to back up and collect the conductor so he didn't have to hike another mile in the snow up to the head end of his train.