Where’s all the rain? Here’s when the California storm will pick up in Sacramento
An early-season storm system passing through Northern California brought Sacramento minimal rain over the weekend, but don’t panic: More should fall through the middle of this week.
The National Weather Service recorded no rain Saturday and just 0.05 inches Sunday in downtown Sacramento, which marked the city’s first measurable total since June 5.
But about another tenth of an inch inches fell between midnight and midday Monday, according to the weather service, and forecasts call for continuing showers and on-and-off chances of thunderstorms through Wednesday.
Between a tenth and a quarter-inch of rain was expected during the day on Monday, with between a quarter-inch and half-inch of rain predicted Monday night, absent thunderstorms that were possible in the afternoon or evening.
Lighter rain Tuesday is expected to total less than a tenth of an inch near Sacramento, according to weather service forecasts. Showers should continue Wednesday, with a slight chance of thunderstorms returning, before the storm system clears out by Wednesday night.
Heading into the weekend, the weather service predicted between an inch and 2 inches of rain might fall near California’s capital between Saturday and Wednesday, which would be an unusually wet storm for mid-September.
Sacramento will likely only approach the high end of that range if thunderstorms find their way to the city.
“Early season storms, confidence can be a little shaky,” weather service meteorologist Cory Mueller said last week.
Similar amounts were forecast throughout most of the Sacramento Valley, the Sierra Nevada foothills and the Lake Tahoe area.
The foothills have been off to a wetter start. Close to an inch and a half fell near Oroville between Sunday morning and 1 p.m. Monday, according to the weather service, and Auburn received just over a half-inch of rain in that period.
Davis recorded 1.26 inches from Sunday morning through early Monday afternoon.
Rain and increased humidity helped calm behavior over the weekend on the Mosquito Fire burning near Foresthill, fire officials said.
However, precipitation has also prompted flash flooding concerns, due to the possibility of debris flows from newly formed burn scars. The weather service has a flash flood watch in place near the Mosquito Fire through the end of Tuesday.
Weather officials also warned that thunderstorms could cause mudslides on burn scars from other wildfires that have burned in recent years, particularly that of the LNU Lightning Complex Fire, which charred parts of Lake, Napa, Sonoma, Solano, and Yolo counties in 2020.
The storm track hitting Northern California is an indirect offshoot of the strong, damaging storm that has blasted western Alaska in recent days.
This story was originally published September 19, 2022 at 8:56 AM.
