As people travel for the holiday weekend, much of Northern California is under a winter storm watch, with communities bracing for several feet of snow.
The National Weather Service warned people traveling to and from the Sierra Nevada and its popular ski resorts to expect “major travel impacts” and to use “extreme caution.”
But there is still time for people to get to their destinations for Presidents Day weekend.
Dakari Anderson, a National Weather Service meteorologist in the Sacramento office, told The Associated Press that Saturday through Sunday morning is going to be the “best travel window” ahead of the incoming cold weather system.
While there was some snow earlier in the week, conditions remained “quiet” on Saturday, Anderson said. But things are expected to pick up Sunday afternoon — with communities that are situated at elevations of 3,000 to 4,000 feet (914 to 1,219 meters) expecting to be blanketed with between 1 and 2 feet (30 and 60 centimeters) of snow.
“Our highest (snow) accumulations are going to be in those kind of more hard to reach places, but we’re still going to see some of those heavier amounts in communities that are populated,” Anderson said.
Communities in higher elevations could see much more snow — possibly 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters). Among them, Anderson said, may be Blue Canyon, a sparsely populated unincorporated community that sits at 4,695 feet (1,431 meters) of elevation and is about 51 miles (82 kilometers) west of Lake Tahoe.
The winter event is expected to span several days and could also impact portions of Western Nevada and Southern Oregon.
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Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
FILE - Dr. Gabe Lewis, a research scientist, measures snow depth and mass to calculate density and snow water equivalent at Central Sierra Snow Lab in Soda Springs, Calif. on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Brontë Wittpenn /San Francisco Chronicle via AP, File)
MUNICH (AP) — Some 200,000 people demonstrated Saturday against Iran's government on the sidelines of a gathering of world leaders in Germany, police said, answering a call from Iran ’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi for cranked up international pressure on Tehran.
Banging drums and chanting for regime change, the giant and boisterous rally in Munich was part of what Pahlavi described as a “global day of action" to support Iranians in the wake of deadly nationwide protests. He also called for demonstrations in Los Angeles and Toronto. The police estimate of 200,000 protesters in Munich was reported by German news agency dpa and was higher than organizers had expected.
“Change, change, regime change” the huge crowd chanted, waving green-white-and-red flags with lion and sun emblems. Iran used that flag before its 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Pahlavi dynasty.
At a news conference on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich, Pahlavi warned of more deaths in Iran if “democracies stand by and watch" following Iran’s deadly crackdown on protesters last month.
“We gather at an hour of profound peril to ask: Will the world stand with the people of Iran?” he asked.
He added that the survival of Iran's government “sends a clear signal to every bully: kill enough people and you stay in power.”
At the Munich rally, demonstrators sported “Make Iran Great Again" red caps, mimicking the MAGA caps worn by U.S. President Donald Trump 's supporters. Many waved placards showing Pahlavi, some that called him a king. The son of Iran’s deposed shah has been in exile for nearly 50 years but is trying to position himself as a player in Iran’s future.
The crowd chanted “Pahlavi for Iran,” and “democracy for Iran" as drums and cymbals sounded.
“We have huge hopes and (are) looking forward that the regime is going to change hopefully,” said Daniyal Mohtashamian, a demonstrator who traveled from Zurich, in Switzerland, to speak for protesters inside Iran who faced repression.
“There is an internet blackout and their voices are not going outside of Iran,” he said.
About 500 protesters also rallied outside the presidential palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, with many holding up banners with slogans against Iran's government and in favor of Pahlavi.
On Saturday night in Iran’s capital, Tehran, witnesses said they heard people chanting against the country’s theocracy. The cries included “death to the dictator” and “long live the shah.” The protest came after calls from Pahlavi for people to chant against the government from their homes over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi criticized the Munich conference, saying it was “sad to see the usually serious Munich Security Conference turned into the ‘Munich Circus’ when it comes to Iran.”
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency says at least 7,005 people were killed in last month's protests, including 214 government forces. It has been accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists inside Iran to verify deaths.
Iran’s government offered its only death toll on Jan. 21, saying 3,117 people were killed. Iran’s theocracy in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from past unrest.
The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, given authorities have disrupted internet access and international calls in Iran.
Iranian leaders are facing renewed pressure from Trump, who has threatened U.S. military action. Trump wants Iran to further scale back its nuclear program. He suggested Friday that regime change in Iran “would be the best thing that could happen."
Iran was also the focus of protests in Munich on Friday, the opening day of an annual security conference in the city gathering European leaders and global security figures. Supporters of the Iranian opposition group People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, demonstrated.
Associated Press journalists John Leicester in Paris and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.
Supports of Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi stand under a huge historic Iranian flag as they attend a demonstration during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Iranian Shah, attends a press conference at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Marijan Murat/dpa via AP)
Supports of Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi attend a demonstration during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Supports of Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi attend a demonstration during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Supporters of the Iranian opposition organisation People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran, PMOI, also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, MEK, show posters of people, they said was killed during the protests in Iran, at a demonstration during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, takes part at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (Marijan Murat/dpa via AP)
Supporters of the Iranian opposition organisation People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran, PMOI, also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, MEK, attend a protest during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
