Winter Storm Watch — Lassen Volcanic National Park; Sierra Nevada of Sierra-Nevada-Placer Counties Above 5000 ft Including Interstate 80; Sie was recorded by Global Incident Tracker on Wednesday, 11 November 2026 at 20:03 UTC. The event is classified as a cold wave incident with a severity rating of Severe, and was detected through the US National Weather Service (NWS).
Winter Storm Watch issued November 11 at 12:03PM PST until November 16 at 4:00PM PST by NWS Sacramento CA * WHAT...Snow is expected for elevations above 6000 feet. Total snow accumulations up to a foot, with up to 2 feet at the highest peaks. Minor accumulations of around an 1 inch possible down to 5000 feet. Winds could gust as high as 60 mph. * WHERE...Northern Sierra above 6000 feet, including Highway 50, Interstate 80, State Route 4, State Route 108, Southern Cascades above 6000 feet, including Lassen National Park. * WHEN...From Friday morning through Monday afternoon. * IMPACTS...Travel could be very difficult. The hazardous conditions could impact the Friday evening and Monday morning commutes. Strong winds could cause downed tree branches, localized power outages, near whiteout conditions. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Snow levels 6500 to 7500 feet Friday, dropping to 5500 to 6500 f
Where this happened
The incident is located in United States (North America), whose capital is Washington, D.C.. Historically, United States is most affected by hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, earthquakes and floods. You can follow every incident recorded in this country, updated live, on the United States incident tracker.
Approximate coordinates of the reported event are 37.100°, -95.700°. The marker on the map above shows this position; for news-derived reports the location reflects the place named in media coverage and may represent a district or city rather than an exact site.
Understanding cold wave events
Extreme low temperatures causing deaths, crop loss and infrastructure failure. Cold waves cause deaths through hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning from improvised heating, and cardiac events during exertion such as snow clearance. Infrastructure failures often compound the risk.
How severity is rated
Global Incident Tracker rates every event on a four-step scale — Minor, Moderate, Severe and Extreme — derived from the source signal: earthquake magnitude, official GDACS alert colour, or the volume of independent media reporting for news-derived incidents. This event is currently rated Severe. Ratings can change as more information becomes available, and a rating is a monitoring signal rather than an official government assessment.
Safety guidance for cold wave situations
- Never use charcoal, generators or gas stoves for indoor heating; carbon monoxide kills silently.
- Dress in layers and keep extremities covered; wind chill accelerates frostbite.
- Check on isolated and elderly people, and keep pipes protected against freezing.
- Avoid heavy exertion such as snow clearance if you have heart conditions.
- Follow only official instructions from local authorities and emergency services — this page is a monitoring record, not an emergency alert.
Data and verification
This record was generated automatically from the US National Weather Service (NWS) and de-duplicated against our archive. Early reports for any incident can be revised: locations get refined, magnitudes are recalculated and impact figures change as assessments arrive. We deliberately do not publish casualty numbers unless an official source states them. The original source report is linked at the top of this page.
Keep watching the situation on our live world incident map, browse every cold waves we track on the Cold Wave tracker, or see today's global picture on the incidents today page.
Timeline and sources
Official warning
Issued by U.S. National Weather Service. A warning or forecast describes a hazard; on its own it is not a report that harm occurred.
How statuses are decided · the number of reports is never treated as confirmation.
-
· received · event time 11 Nov 2026, 20:03 UTCFirst report Official warning
First recorded from U.S. National Weather Service.
Times are when this site received each report, in UTC; the event time is shown where the source gave one. Copies of one syndicated story count as one report.
Conditions at the time
No rainfall was recorded that day, and the temperature peaked at 20°C. Conditions are shown for context only — they do not establish a cause.
Weather reanalysis for this location and date via Open-Meteo.