By Kathryn Reed

White – that’s the word for the day in Lake Tahoe now that the winds have calmed down.

Snow is rapidly accumulating at lake level, with it coming down even harder on the ski slopes. About 1.5 inches have fallen at the South Shore as of 4pm Friday. This is good news because Squaw, Northstar and Heavenly are expected to open Saturday.

Heavenly had to delay it’s opening a day because of high winds. Those same winds shutdown Mt. Rose on Friday.

Winds have knocked power out in parts of Northern California and Northern Nevada. And where the lights are on, they are often flickering.

Gusts of 80mph grounded flights at Reno-Tahoe International Airport Friday afternoon.

Slick roads are being blamed for a fatal accident on Interstate 80. Spin-outs were seen on both sides of Spooner Summit between Carson City and Lake Tahoe Friday afternoon.

Check with Caltrans or NDOT for road conditions, or click on the icons on Lake Tahoe News’ Home page.

Forecasts called for a chance of snow all weekend.

Be sure to read Lake Tahoe News each morning for the ski report from Curtis Fong, The Guy from Tahoe.