Snow on tap for northern Sierra, light showers possible over Bay Area in next few days
A fresh, modest coat of snow is expected to fall over the Sierra Nevada to start the week, while the Bay Area could see some light showers amid mostly overcast skies in the coming days.
The storm system moving over Northern California is expected to complicate travel along some roadways, particularly Interstate 5 and a few mountain passes along the northern Sierra. Even so, snow totals should be nowhere near as high as from a series of late December storms that buried the mountains in record-setting fashion.
Six to 8 inches of snow is expected to fall over Donner Pass from late Sunday through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Totals should be less to the south, with only an inch or two expected over Echo Pass.
Most of the snow is expected to fall north of Interstate 80, with Lassen Park set to receive 24 to 30 inches of snow, while Interstate 5 near Dunsmuir and the city of Mt. Shasta could see 8 to 12 inches of snow.
“It’s pretty run-of-the-mill storm,” said Cory Mueller, a National Weather Service meteorologist. “It’ll have some mountain impacts with travel.”
Already, California has received more moisture during the first three months of the current water year – which runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30 – than it did for the entire previous year.
Still, much more precipitation is needed to help further ease drought conditions across the state.
As of Friday, California’s snowpack was at 157% of historical averages for that time of year. That’s about 55% of what water managers would expect to see by April 1 – a sterling start to the season, but a sign of how much more snow is still needed this winter.
Most of California remains mired in severe drought, and a third of it is in extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The storm should help the state’s northern mountains, which have received a bit less powder than elsewhere in the state. Snowpack along the northern Sierra is at 142% of normal for Dec. 31, while the southern Sierra is at 172% of normal for that date.
Across the Bay Area, that same storm should bring mostly cloudy skies and a chance for some light showers over the next few days, mostly across the North Bay.
Parts of the North Bay can expect about a quarter-inch of rain through early Wednesday, with a half-inch expected to fall over the coastal mountains, including Mt. Tamalpais, said Eleanor Dhuyvetter, another National Weather Service meteorologist.
A tenth of an inch is expected to fall over the South Bay, while San Francisco could see .2 inches of rain.
Temperatures are expected to be in the mid-to-high 50s for much of the Bay Area over the next few days, with overnight lows mostly staying in the 40s.
“It’s going to be one of the typical ones (storms) that we see where the bulk of the moisture stays to our north, and has a hard time reaching the Bay Area and south,” Dhuyvetter said.