Heavy snowfall on Sunday forced the closure of key roads to the areas of Lake Tahoe -with a snowstorm warning until tomorrow- and Mammoth Mountain, where weather services will maintain that alert until Sunday night.

Forecasters are calling for strong wind gusts in the Sierra Nevada ridges through the early hours of Monday.

“We suggest you stay indoors,” officials reported as they stressed, “Stay warm and don’t put yourself or your family in a dangerous position. A monster snowstorm in California lashes Tahoe, Mammoth and Sierra Nevada amid avalanche warnings.”

Meanwhile, the intensity of the wind and high temperatures could worsen the fires that remain active in Texas, including Smokehouse Creek, which has already become the worst fire in the history of the state by devouring more than 405,000 hectares.

The blaze also killed two people, destroyed hundreds of structures and devastated thousands of livestock.

The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center updated the day before on a wide swath of the region that is under elevated fire risk, from west Texas to southeastern South Dakota.

ef/arm/df