Here’s how much rain fell this week as thunderstorms pelted Sacramento area with hail
Thunderstorms dumped anywhere from a quarter to three-quarters of an inch of rain in the Sacramento area Wednesday as the region was pelted by dime-sized hail that filled streets and front lawns.
A cold weather system moved north along the California coast before it combined with warm temperatures near the ground and created the right conditions to form scattered thunderstorms throughout Northern California, said Eric Kurth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
The scattered storms produce localized rainfall throughout Sacramento County, which meant some areas got more rain than others. As of 10:30 a.m. Thursday, downtown Sacramento had received 0.25 of inch of rain over the previous 24 hours, Kurth said. In that same time period, North Sacramento got 0.86 of an inch of rain and Fair Oaks had 0.52 of an inch.
Other than lightning and loud thunder, the most dramatic effect from Wednesday’s storms was the large amount of hail that fell. The weather service reported dime-sized hail fell in the Carmichael area Wednesday.
Kurth said most of the hail typically melts after falling and is incorporated in rainfall measurements totals. Some accumulated hail was was still visible Thursday morning on the roof of a home near the weather service’s office in Sacramento.
The meteorologist said weather spotters report hail size by measuring it with rulers provided by the weather service, and they use coins to compare with the size of hail.
“If you have a coin right next to it, you can get pretty precise,” Kurth said.
Wednesday’s storms also dropped additional snow on the Sierra Nevadas, with several inches of snow in the foothills east of Sacramento and more than 2 feet of snow in the higher elevations.
Sugar Bowl Ski Resort had 27 inches of new snow, 8 inches fell at Heavenly Mountain Resort, Soda Springs Mountain Resort and Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort both had about 15 inches of snow, Dodge Ridge Ski Resort had 17 inches and Kirkwood Mountain Resort had 22 inches of snow, according to the weather service.
The southern Sacramento Valley and the northern San Joaquin Valley should get temperatures 5 to 15 degrees cooler than normal on Friday morning, according to the weather service. The high temperature later in the day is expected to reach 70 degrees in the Valley and 68 degrees in the foothills.
Dry and mild weather was expected for the Sacramento region Saturday, before more unsettled weather returns late Sunday. But Kurth said it won’t be as dramatic as Wednesday’s storms.The meteorologist said rain is expected to fall in the Sacramento area Sunday night and wind down by Monday morning.
