Bundle up: Northern California is in for a wintry week ahead with snowstorms incoming
Northern California is in for a wintry week with multiple weather advisories set to take effect over the next several days.
The National Weather Service’s Sacramento office has issued three different notices in different regions and with different timings.
First, the northern Sierra Nevada will be placed under a winter weather advisory starting 3 p.m. Sunday through Monday morning. The advisory means significant snowfall at high elevations and potential travel delays over mountain passes.
Forecasters say that 4 to 8 inches of snow are expected above 3,000 feet, and snow will continue to accumulate down to 2,000 feet. The snowstorm may also reduce visibility and make roads slippery, the weather service warned.
NWS meteorologists predict the most snowfall at Carson Pass and Ebbetts Pass, both estimated to receive 6 to 8 inches of snow. Both Donner Pass and Echo Summit are expected to see between 4 and 6 inches of snow.
Meanwhile, temperatures in the Valley will drop down to sub-freezing levels, prompting the weather service to issue a hard freeze watch for late Monday night through Tuesday morning.
The Valley may also see some rain starting Sunday evening. Sacramento could see up to a quarter inch of rain through Monday, Grass Valley could see up to an inch and Stockton could see a half-inch.
The freeze watch includes all of the Sacramento Valley, from Redding in the north down to the southern border of Stanislaus County.
Forecasters say the temperatures could go as low as 25 degrees Fahrenheit, and suggest taking steps to protect outdoor plants and any outdoor plumbing. Sacramento is expected to hit 30 degrees by early Tuesday morning, but South Lake Tahoe could reach just 6 degrees.
But these two severe weather notices are a mere prelude to a “significantly stronger, wetter storm” set to pummel Northern California from Tuesday through Friday, potentially bringing several feet of snow to the mountains.
A winter storm watch will take effect late Tuesday, and in the days that follow, high elevations of the Sierra Nevada could see up to 7 feet of snow.
Foothills communities — which could see about 6 to 10 inches of snow — are included in the winter storm watch. NWS forecasters are discouraging travel over mountain passes during that time frame, and say that chain controls and highway closures are possible given the potential for whiteout conditions.
“Rain and snow become heavy Tuesday night into Wednesday,” meteorologists wrote in a Sunday forecast discussion. “This, along with increasing southerly winds, will bring extremely hazardous travel conditions to much of the area.”
In the Valley, high winds are also expected around the middle of the week. NWS officials predict gusts of up to 50 miles per hour in Sacramento and up to 60 mph in San Francisco. Forecasters say power outages are possible due the potential for damage to electrical equipment.
This story was originally published January 24, 2021 at 2:17 PM.