Hail, showers reach the Sacramento region. Here’s what to expect in the valley, Sierra

The region’s first bout of hail this year hit Land Park in Sacramento this afternoon, dropping enough icy hail to stick in some neighborhood backyards as the first of several powerful Pacific storms swept across California.

National Weather Service meteorologist Cory Mueller said the weather system was “fairly active” and pushing scattered showers throughout Sacramento. Hail was a “possibility” today, he said.

The rain is forecast to dissipate over night Friday, with Saturday 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.

Mueller said another storm system is expected to move in next week.

“It looks like it’s going to be a pretty wet and impactful storm,” he said.

Tahoe travel difficult

The weather system is making travel to the Lake Tahoe region difficult as well, with snow in lower elevations causing spin-outs and crashes along Interstate 80. The conditions prompted officials to temporarily shut a 55-mile stretch of the highway from Alta to the Nevada state line and turn traffic around.

High winds and poor visibility prompted the Kirkwood, Heavenly, and Northstar mountain resorts to close, postpone or operate their lift chairs at reduced speed Friday morning.

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.

From warm to cold

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.

The winter weather is playing out across the state, with storms in the Bay Area and Southern California.

“Winter has returned!” the San Francisco Bay Area office of the National Weather Service tweeted.

In Southern California, where January has had summerlike temperatures, the Los Angeles-area weather office also tweeted a greeting to winter: “Are you ready to say goodbye (for now, at least) to the never ending heat? Well it’s nearly time because today will be our last 70+ degree day for at least the next week, likely longer.”Drivers were advised to bring chains while traveling in Southern California’s mountains, where weekend snowfall was expected to begin lightly, become more significant Sunday and Monday, and then see an even stronger and colder storm on Wednesday and Thursday.

More than 95% of California has been experiencing drought conditions and the remainder is abnormally dry, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported in its weekly update Thursday.

This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 4:11 PM.