Storm no match for eclipse watchers

It took more than a snowstorm to keep Eric Anderson's Eagle Valley Middle School class from seeing a partial eclipse of the sun.

"We thought it was a bust," Anderson said Friday. "It was looking like there was not going to be anything to see."

Anderson, who has been a science teacher for 14 years, was moving on to a chemistry project when there was a break in the clouds around 1:30 p.m., just before the eclipse was over.

"One of the kids yelled, 'Hey, the sun's out,' just in time to project the image," he said.

The class went outside where the telescope was set up and projected an image of the sun onto a piece of paper.

"It is really nice to have nature cooperate when trying to work on a particular topic," he said. "It was really spiffy."

An eclipse occurs when the moon crosses between the earth and the sun. On Friday, the moon blocked the sun completely in the Carribean, but only by about 10 percent in Northern Nevada.

Typically, the class moves to indoors science during the depth of winter, when there is less chance of clear skies.

High winds early in the morning announced that Friday's storm was on schedule.

Rain fell in the valleys until just after sunrise when it changed to snow.

Chains or snow tires also were required on a 2-mile stretch of Highway 395 between Reno and Carson City where the Nevada Highway Patrol said blowing snow was producing whiteout conditions in the morning.

There was no school in the Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District, the Lake Tahoe Unified schools, Storey County or Incline Village.

Snow in the mountains approached blizzard conditions with 85 mph winds late Thursday at South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Interstate 80 was closed late Thursday into early Friday.

According to the National Weather Service, snow showers are predicted to continue with a 30 percent chance today decreasing as night approaches. Sunday should be partly cloudy with highs in the 50s.

About an inch of snow fell in Carson City on Friday, but quickly melted off.

The snow translated into .2 inches of precipitation, bringing December up to 1.16 inches, well over the average of .7 inches for the first half of the month. However, all the moisture brought Carson City only to 4.57 inches for the year, less than half of the 9.91-inch average for the year. Western Nevada typically gets most of its moisture in December, January and February.