A weather system today brings widespread precipitation, moderate to heavy mountain snow, gusty southerly winds, and isolated thunderstorms throughout the day. Dry and warming weather will follow over the weekend and into next week with periods of gusty north to east winds.
Discussion
RADAR at 1:30am this morning is already showing showers over the Coastal Range and northern Sacramento Valley, which are associated with a quick moving weather system that will be moving inland throughout the day today. As the trough moves inland, we can expect widespread precipitation, moderate to heavy mountain snow, gusty southerly winds, and isolated Valley and foothills thunderstorms. Generally we’re expecting around 0.5 to 1 inch of rain in the northern Sacramento Valley today, 1 to 2 inches in the foothills and mountains below snow level, and 0.1 to 0.5 inches in the remainder of the Sacramento Valley, northern San Joaquin Valley, and Delta region. The NBM also still shows a 10 to 20% probability of isolated thunderstorms in the Valley and foothills between 10am and 8pm. Any storms that pop up would impact local rain totals, though rain rates still look to remain below debris flow thresholds for burn scars.
Snow amounts have once again trended just a bit higher with the latest forecast, though impacts will remain largely the same despite this slight increase.
Our Winter Storm Warning remains in effect from 7am to 10pm PST today, for elevations above 5500 ft in the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades.
The NBM has a 35 to 70% chance of 8 inches or more over 24 hours, with snow levels starting around 5500 to 6500 ft when snow begins and lowering to 4500 to 5500 ft in the afternoon. Travel delays, chain controls, road closures, and significant reductions in visibility remain possible throughout the storm today. Be sure to stay up to date with the latest weather forecast at weather.gov/sto and road conditions at quickmap.dot.ca.gov!
On Saturday, a few mountains shower and snow showers may remain in the morning, but barring this, drier weather is expected to return to the region over the weekend. Upper level ridging will build back into the region over the weekend, bringing drier and slightly warmer weather that continues into the extended forecast period.
Extended Discussion (Tuesday through Friday)
Inside slider short wave trough progged to drops south through interior NorCal Tuesday. Dry weather expected except for a slight chance of light snow showers over higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada. Main impact will be breezy to windy north to east wind Tuesday. Gusty wind continues Wednesday as EPAC upper ridging builds inland. Areas of gusty north to east wind continue in the northern and eastern foothills/mountains through the remainder of the week. Above normal high temperatures expected through the extended period with mainly 60s in the Central Valley and 40s to lower 60s for the mountains and foothills.