Juan Manuel plows the snow off a sidewalk on Friday in downtown Truckee, Calif. The most powerful Pacific storm of the season is forecast to bring up to 10 feet of snow into the Sierra Nevada by the weekend. The Associated Press

California authorities shut down 100 miles of Interstate 80 on Friday as the biggest snow storm of the season bore down on the Sierra Nevada, where residents were urged to take shelter and stay off roads as they prepared for up to 10 feet of snow in some areas and damaging winds.

“AAANNNDD WE’RE CLOSED!!” the California Highway Patrol posted on X, previously known as Twitter, saying the closure was due to “spin outs, high winds, and low visibility. No estimated time of reopening the freeway.”

Authorities closed the interstate in both directions after 5 p.m. on a day when the majority of more than a dozen ski resorts around Lake Tahoe were closed, a tornado touched down in central California and visitors to Yosemite National Park were told to leave. The 100-mile closure is at the state border just west of Reno, Nevada to near Emigrant Gap, California.

California Highway Patrol, state transportation officials and other authorities reported throughout the day that troopers and others were responding to dozens of collisions on I-80, cars sliding into snow banks or getting stuck on the side of slick roadways. There were no immediate reports of any serious injuries.

A tornado touched down Friday afternoon in Madera County before 4 p.m., said Andy Bollenbacher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Hanford. It caused some damage to an elementary school, he said.

The National Weather Service in Reno said late Friday it expects the heaviest snow to arrive after midnight, continuing with blizzard conditions and blowing snow through Saturday that could reduce visibility to one-quarter mile or less.

The storm began barreling into the region on Thursday, with the biggest effects expected to close major highways and trigger power outages Friday afternoon into Saturday. A blizzard warning through Sunday morning covers a 300-mile stretch of the mountains.