Dry and cold weather expected over the next few days. Another strong winter storm will bring multiple feet of snow and major impacts once again to the foothills and mountains Saturday into early next week.
Discussion
Short-wave ridge moving through providing clear skies to interior NorCal early this morning. Current temperatures range from the single digits to lower 20s in the mountains to the mid 30s to lower 40s across the Central Valley where northwesterly winds of 5-15 mph are helping to keep readings up.
Winds are forecast to slacken a bit by sunrise, particularly along the eastern edge of the valley which may allow temperatures to take a quick drop to around freezing given current dew points in the 20s. Satellite imagery shows some clouds approaching northwest California associated with a weak short-wave trough that will brush across the far northern portion of the state.
Some sprinkles or light showers will be possible over Shasta County later today and tonight as this system passes, but the remainder of interior NorCal will remain cool and dry through Friday.
The clouds and moderating dew points will result in milder temperatures early Friday.
Forecast remains on track with another cold trough dropping down the coast over the weekend.
This will bring another major winter storm to the region with heavy snow (accumulations of several feet) over the foothills and mountains with low snow levels.
Extended Discussion (Monday through Thursday)
Ensembles and clusters keep a large scale upper level trough over the West Coast States through the end of the week. This will keep cool and unsettled weather conditions over NorCal through the week. Disturbances will rotate around the trough every other day enhancing the precipitation.
A system on Monday and Tuesday could bring several inches of snow possibly into the upper foothills, but amounts look much lighter than the storms of the past week.
A break in the wet weather looks possible Wednesday and early Thursday, before the wet pattern returns late Thursday into Friday.
Temperatures will be about 10 degrees below normal with highs in the 50’s and lows in the 30’s at Valley locations.