Snow, thunder snow, road closures and power outages are occurring in East Idaho.
The following roads have been shut down until further notice because of the snowstorm hitting the region: Highway 26 between Ririe and Swan Valley, Highway 32 between Ashton and Tetonia, Highway 33 between Sugar City and Victor and at the Wyoming border, and Highway 34 between Soda Springs and the Wyoming border.
About 1,500 Idaho Power customers in the Pocatello, Fort Hall, Blackfoot and Firth areas lost power between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Friday around the same time that the snowstorm and associated thunder snow first hit the region.
As of 3:50 p.m. Idaho Power had restored power to all but approximately 200 of those customers and expected to have electricity restored to everyone by around 4:30 p.m.Â
The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory and special weather alert for East Idaho because of Friday's snow and motorists are being told to use extreme caution on the region's roads. The storm is expected to bring white-out conditions and winds in excess of 40 mph to East Idaho.
In addition to the snow, avalanche warnings have been declared for Fremont, Bear Lake and Franklin counties. Please stay away from steep slopes in those counties until further notice.Â
The storm currently hitting the region is expected to continue dumping snow through Friday night.
The areas expected to receive the most snow — up to 5 inches Friday afternoon through Friday night — are Island Park, Ashton, Driggs, Victor, Tetonia, Swan Valley, Palisades, Bone, Lava Hot Springs, Wayan, Henry, Soda Springs, Bancroft, Grace, Montpelier, Georgetown, Paris and St. Charles.
The rest of East Idaho, including the cities of Pocatello, Chubbuck, Rexburg, Fort Hall, Blackfoot, Idaho Falls, Ammon, Preston, American Falls, Aberdeen, Rigby, Dubois, Malad, Inkom, McCammon, Arimo, Downey, Arbon, Rockland, Shelley and Firth could get up to 2 or 3 inches of snow Friday afternoon through Friday night.
Elsewhere in the state, the storm has triggered winter weather advisories in areas of southwest Idaho north of Boise and Mountain Home as well as in North Idaho.Â
Outside of Idaho, winter weather advisories, winter storm warnings and winter storm watches have been declared in Montana, winter weather advisories, winter storm warnings and high wind warnings have been declared in Wyoming and Oregon, winter weather advisories have been issued in Utah and wind advisories are in effect Nevada.Â
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