"It started as rain, and then it got colder and at our house it dumped about 30 inches," said retired ABC7 photojournalist and current Truckee resident Randy Davis.
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Video from the weekend showed blankets of snow covering numerous houses, cars and power lines. Ice and snow covered roads.
"It was just absolutely dumping," said Andrew Schwartz with the Sierra Snow Lab. "We had about 34 inches fell in the course about 12 hours, with 7.5 inches falling between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m."
Now the region is preparing for another storm this week. The Sierra Snow Lab is predicting potentially two to four feet of snow to fall starting Wednesday. Despite the storm, experts still think we will need more of these storms to get the state out of the drought. They say they wont know until April.
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"If we get to that point, and we are still above normal and we are getting this major storms, then it is time to start talking about long-term resolutions to the drought," Schwartz said. "Until then, we are just going to be really excited we are getting big storms."
The snowstorms bring potentially good news long-term, but for now, residents will just have to stay inside till the next one passes.
"There is not a lot you can do to prepare," Davis said. "You make sure you have enough fuel for your snow blowers, you clear things as best you can. You stock up with food and you just hunker down and wait."