California Snow Storm Buries Houses and Cars, Videos Show

A fierce winter storm has smothered parts of California under a thick blanket of snow, which has swallowed up cars and houses under several feet of deep drifts.

Stunned locals and visitors shared videos of the scenes this weekend as the landscape was obliterated, with higher regions the worst-hit. Snowfall of at least 12 feet was forecast for some peaks, while areas sitting at 6,000 feet above sea level were warned to brace for up to 8 feet of snow.

Although the calendar says it's nearly spring, Californians have been hit by a slew of blizzard warnings as the state was battered by heavy snowfall and fierce winds that whipped up snowdrifts and left visibility at near zero—trapping motorists and making driving dangerous in the whiteout. And the videos coming out of the state lay bare the scale of the extreme weather buffeting the region.

Transport agency Caltrans, which manages California's highways, shared footage of a driver being rescued from a snow-packed Highway 50 on Sunday morning.

The clip showed how the vehicle needed to be towed backwards out of a deep drift when it was posted on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

The agency captioned the clip: "Here's a video after a snow sluff just east of Echo Summit trapped a few vehicles and closed Highway 50 for about 30 minutes this morning. There were no injuries and crews worked quickly to reopen the roadway."

One X user shared a string of clips spliced together to show how different parts of the state had been affected. Collin Rugg uploaded the clip online, saying: "NEW: California is getting wrecked by a massive snow storm with winds reaching up to 190mph and estimates of more than 10 feet of snow. The conditions were so bad that hundreds of vehicles got stuck overnight on the I-80. Some reports estimate that the weekend snowfall will reach 12 feet with *another* couple feet expected early next week."

The video, which has been viewed more than 21 million times, begins with a resident opening a front door to find that it is completely blocked by a wall of snow outside.

While storm-watcher Colin McCarthy shared a short clip showing how cars had been buried in deep drifts. "Feels like it may never stop snowing in Truckee, CA," he said.

The news comes after a year in which weather has dominated news headlines, as extreme events rocked the country.

Experts fear that climate change will make extreme weather patterns worse, with a series of researchers and scientists telling Newsweek their grim predictions for the future. Many believe that more thunderstorms and floods are likely, along with tornadoes, hurricanes and droughts.