Winter returns: Cool, showery weekend coming after Northern California heat records
Cooler weather and off-and-on showers are coming to Northern California this weekend, days after highs in the 70s shattered daily temperature records for January. Snow could also fall in low elevations in the Sierra Nevada range, forecasters predict.
National Weather Service forecasts show showers likely in Sacramento on Friday morning, with thunderstorms possible in the early afternoon and evening, and a high of 53 degrees.
On Saturday, it’s expected to be mostly sunny with highs still in the mid-50s around the capital and a frigid overnight low of 35 degrees predicted in Sacramento.
Sunday could be colder during the day, forecast to max out around 51 degrees, with more showers possible. A slight chance of showers will linger Monday and possibly into midweek, forecasts show.
The weather service also anticipates light snow showers Friday and more moderate, low-falling snow in the mountains late Sunday or early Monday. Forecasts predict snow could fall well below 2,000 or 1,500 feet in some parts of the foothills, and between 500 and 1,000 feet in stretches of Shasta County, Monday morning.
South Lake Tahoe will see highs in the 30s and lows in the teens Friday through at least Monday, with snow likely for most of the weekend, forecasts show. The weather service anticipates about 1 to 2 inches of snow could accumulate Friday.
It’s a quick and drastic flip from unseasonably warm, very windy weather that dominated the north half of the state earlier in the week, stoking several small wildfires before conditions calmed on Wednesday. The most significant wildfire starts came in Southern California and the Santa Cruz Mountains where authorities also had to issue scattered evacuations.
Numerous Northern California cities crushed daily heat records in recent days. The weather service’s Sacramento office tweeted that Wednesday marked five consecutive days for Stockton breaking or tying a record-high temperature mark. The city peaked at an astonishing 78 degrees on Monday, breaking the previous high for that date by 9 degrees.
Downtown Sacramento set new records Jan. 13 (69 degrees, up from a record of 67), this past Sunday (72, up from 70) and Monday (74, up from 70). It also tied a record-high 71 degrees on Saturday.
Wind gusts were also extraordinarily strong, especially in the greater Bay Area. The NWS Bay Area office said it recorded peak winds of at least 54 mph in San Francisco, over 80 mph at Mount Diablo and over 90 mph in the Mayacamas Mountains in the North Bay early Tuesday morning.
It was so windy that it forced the closure of Yosemite National Park.
San Francisco also smashed a heat record Monday, reaching 76 degrees. The previous high for Jan. 18 was just 70 degrees, set 101 years earlier.
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 10:06 AM.
