California Wine Country, Redding get snow flurries in final winter storm of 2021
READ MORE
Northern California Winter Storm
A powerful winter storm that lasted through the holiday weekend has hit Northern California with snow and rain. Here’s the latest weather news.
Expand All
Snow has started to fall at low elevations in Northern California as a cold midweek storm system is forecast to bring anywhere from a dusting to a few inches Tuesday and Wednesday across the Sierra Nevada foothills, the North Bay mountains and small portions of the Sacramento Valley.
The National Weather Service, which advises that 8 to 20 more inches of snow could fall in the mountains between Tuesday and Wednesday, also said up to 7 inches could drop at elevations above 1,000 feet
There was still powder lining the roadways in Placerville and Diamond Springs by the Tuesday morning commute hours, Caltrans live traffic cameras showed. Highway 50 has reopened between Placerville and Meyers, with chain controls required.
The weather service also reports a “dusting on the Valley floor (is) possible.” The National Weather Service tweed that sensors picked up “light flurries” at Redding Municipal Airport around 4 a.m. Tuesday, and forecasts show slight chances of snow falling in Red Bluff or Chico by midweek.
Snow or sleet probably won’t reach Sacramento County, according to the latest weather service forecasts, which had predicted earlier in the week a very slight chance in hilly parts of Folsom. The suburban city last saw snow in December 2009.
But there’s still a slight possibility of light snowfall next door in El Dorado Hills late Tuesday or early Wednesday, according to forecasts as of Tuesday morning.
There have also been reports – via radar, local residents or wildfire cameras – of snow near high elevations in the North Bay Area: on the Mayacamas, which include Cobb Mountain and Mount St. Helena, as well as atop Mount Vaca.
In Wine Country, residents shared photos and videos to social media showing snowflakes falling early Tuesday in the Napa County town of Angwin.
The current storm system is blowing in from the north. It won’t compare to the 5 to 10 feet of snow that dumped on the Sierra range during Christmas weekend, but it is bringing snow to lower elevations due to the dip in temperatures.
Sacramento could see roughly a quarter-inch of rain Tuesday night.
Patchy frost is also likely near the capital, where daytime highs in the low-to-mid 40s will give way to overnight lows in the 30s. The weather service forecast for Sacramento this Friday, New Year’s Eve, includes a nighttime low of 30 degrees, but no precipitation.
This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 10:31 AM.
