Rain, snow and thunderstorms to hit Northern California before sunny weekend
The latest forecasts show stormy weather will ramp up up across interior Northern California by midweek, hitting hardest Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
It’s the second system of the week, according to National Weather Service, after the first dropped showers in the Sacramento Valley and light snow in the Sierra range Monday and early Tuesday.
Heavy snow is expected to have a major impact in the mountains Wednesday, and NWS is strongly discouraging mountain travel through Thursday. NWS and Caltrans have said on Twitter that chain controls appear all but certain and highway closures are possible at higher elevations.
Snow storms ‘came in like a lion’
Snow levels between 5,500 to 6,500 feet Tuesday will drop as low as 3,500 feet by Wednesday night in the Sierra.
Areas near the summit could see between 3 to 4 feet of snow this week, with 24 to 30 inches in the forecast for Donner Pass and 12 to 18 inches expected at Echo Pass.
Highway 50 and Interstate 80 will see significant travel impacts start Tuesday afternoon around elevations of 5,000 feet.
Highways 4, 88, 108 and 120 are also poised to be heavily impacted, with a few inches at lower elevations and 2 feet or more at the highest elevations of each roadway, Caltrans said.
The storm system is considered moderate to heavy for this time of year. March has seen multiple snowstorms after the entire Sierra range was blanketed for much of January and February.
“March 2019 came in like a lion, and is expected to go out like a lion as well,” the NWS Reno office tweeted Sunday.
Rainy week, sunny weekend
Sacramento is expected to get 1 to 2 inches of rain total from Tuesday afternoon through Thursday. The heaviest rains are expected after 11 p.m. Tuesday.
Sacramento could get up to a quarter-inch of rain Tuesday and up to a half-inch Wednesday.
Wednesday will also see the possibility of thunderstorms throughout the Sacramento Valley, and gusts of wind up to 20 mph are forecast for Sacramento.
Showers will continue Thursday, but the latest forecast shows a gorgeous weekend in Sacramento: sunny skies with temperature highs in the upper 60s to low 70s starting Friday through Sunday.
This story was originally published March 26, 2019 at 7:15 AM.
