Good Saturday, it's December 11th
and we have a lot to talk about
major storm system coming in.
That arrives around midnight as
we move into Sunday morning,
early morning hours about 1:00 AM.
Two AM we'll start to see more
of the rain and even those heavy
snowfall totals starting to pick up.
Let's talk about what we can
expect for your Saturday.
This will be one of the more
important days because you want
to be able to prepare for the
heavy rain and downpours that are
going to come in Sunday, Monday.
Lingering into Tuesday.
A slight break and then another system.
Arrives Wednesday into Thursday,
so today really is the day to prepare,
whether it's sandbags and
flooding in your neighborhood to
clearing out some of the gutters,
it's also clearing out those
leaves on your street.
Anything that could clog up those
storm drains you want to do.
Here's one other thing I would
recommend doing today if you can.
Is make sure all of those blow up
Christmas things you have outside
or any loose Christmas decorations
out there in the lawn you want
to secure them or even bring them
in for at least a couple days.
This next system is going to be.
Pretty big,
not just with the rain and the snow,
but the strong winds will get to
all of it as we do prepare for this.
Connects couple of days into next week now.
It's also going to bring about
major travel delays.
And I mean major major closures of highways.
We do expect that to happen,
specially throughout your Sunday
afternoon and into Monday as we
get another session pretty much
scattered showers,
but they're going to be intense,
so we do expect the wind blowing
to make visibility so limited.
We do expect to see those highways.
Closed I'm talking 80 up and
over Donner Pass.
I do expect that to close down as
well as portions of 50 up in the
mountains and we will also see a risk
for power outages now just because
the winds are going to be so strong.
But even the weight of some of
that snow may have an impact.
Alright, so here's what it is.
A pretty big low pressure system,
but it's a combination of
things that are all adding up.
I know we had a combination of pretty
big events that came in in October.
That historic atmospheric river we
continue to talk about broadened.
A lot of rainfall,
almost an entire water years
worth of rain in one storm system,
which is astronomical.
We are all thinking, wow,
this is a one in 500 year event.
Now we're getting something sort of similar,
except things are changing.
We're getting some very cold air
that's coming in from the north
that we did not get in October.
That cold air is going to add
up into our snow totals now.
We got pretty good snow for
the highest elevations in
October. Now we're looking at the
snow level dropping down to about.
Thirty five hundred feet,
maybe even a slightly bit lower in
certain spots along fifty and eighty.
Now, this cold circulation
that's already happening.
We have a second system arriving there.
You can see it in the
Gulf of Alaska rotating.
It's helping to draw in that cold
air into this huge elongated trough.
Here over the Pacific.
Now we have the low pressure system,
its associated cold front that's pulling
in the really the rain, the snow,
all of that system and moisture.
But now we add one more element and that
is the atmospheric river we are tapping.
Into an atmospheric river way over there.
Kind of just north of the Hawaiian Islands
were tapping into that moisture and it's
being drawn in into that cold front.
Now that major trough we're seeing
that big you that you see over the
Pacific that's allowing all that cold
air to move in and all three combined
to bring us higher precipitation
totals but also cold air is helping to
bring in higher snow totals as well,
turning that rain to snow as soon
as it hits certain elevations.
And the lower those elevations hit.
We know the intense coldness of
the system that's being pulled in.
Is causing those lower elevations
to form that snowfall around 3000
feet Pacific Northwest getting at
first Washington into Oregon and
portions of the northwest corner of
California getting that rain into
your Saturday now it's going to take
a little bit of time for that system
to make its way across Northern
California to Sacramento area.
That's going to be late tonight.
I'm saying drop 10:00 PM or so for some
areas further north of Sacramento and
hitting the mountains areas of Lassen,
even already starting it.
Maybe sprinkle here and there,
but it's going to be treacherous
if you are planning to head up I5.
Into areas of Oregon.
Maybe Siskiyou Mountain passes Dunnes
Mere a lot of snow on the way for I5 areas,
let's talk the atmospheric river
because we're tapping into this moisture
out here you can see it kind of
highlighted in this neon shade of blue.
This is some good amount of moisture.
A lot of heat over the Pacific areas
around the Hawaiian Islands usually
contribute to that Pineapple Express.
Now when we can tap into that
with that cold front,
it drags and pulls it into the system.
The rotating system I kind of
just is able to pull it all in.
All moves together in one motion and
then kind of moves its way across,
dragging through in the next 24 to 48 hours.
This is the first one we're
getting it Sunday into Monday,
but here's the thing it has that's
actually kind of stalling out a
little bit you notice as we move
into Monday that nice fine line that
would move its way down South is
actually kind of spread out more.
It looks like a little
blob around areas here.
This is what's going to hold on to
some of that moisture a little longer.
I'm talking an extra maybe 12 hours or so,
or will actually get a pull and.
And and grab from that moisture to
add to our rain totals and our snow
totals as soon as that one passes.
We have a week or one that approaches
us Wednesday into Thursday passes on
through then the rest of the atmospheric
rivers at this point look like they're
going to be targeting the Pacific Northwest,
so we have one solid good one that will
be coming in the next 24 to 48 hours.
The second one is a bit weaker,
but we still expect it Wednesday to Thursday.
Let's talk rain.
It is a lot of rain.
I mean get ready and brace
yourselves because the green is.
Dark Green is usually pretty good.
Significant amount of rain.
As soon as we start getting into the yellow,
the oranges and even sometimes the
Reds after we get intense downpours,
and they're just ready to come.
You can see it there.
Santa Rosa,
Clear Lake Yokai as we get into
four AM even some heavy rain
in that dark green shades,
just enough over Sacramento you
can see the snow starting to form
the layer of snow and the level of
snow starting to make its way down
as we start approaching sunrise.
Closer to about 7:00 AM we do
expect the snow levels to drop.
Down to about 3500 feet now,
we will expect to see some more
of that heavy rain pushing through
as we continue in the afternoon.
We get one small little gap here
from like about 2:00 to 5:00
o'clock where we get some,
maybe sunshine,
but at this point it's mostly cloud coverage.
Then we get more rain and scattered
showers pushing through in the
overnight hours into Monday 3:30 AM.
Some solid down pouring rain.
More of that snowfall and
lower snow levels continue,
so this is really a solid
24 hour event lingering.
Even into Tuesday morning
with scattered showers,
but it is a lot of rain in
a short amount of time,
so that's what we're worried about.
The thing that you should not necessarily
be too worried about at this point
is I know we bring up Caldor fires.
We bring up LMU and lnu complex fire,
burn scar,
or regions and zones,
but we are looking at some
snowfall areas that are going to
be low enough near grizzly flats.
The Keldor fire that we do not at
this point in time expect there
to be any debris floats.
Now we will keep our eye on areas around.
The LNU complex fire,
but at this point we're looking decent,
so let's talk about how much
rain two to four inches.
You heard that right inches of rainfall.
We usually get about 1/10 to 1/4 of an
inch of rainfall in one good solid storm.
That kind of pushes on through.
We had that a few days ago,
stocked in two to three inches and
you have to remember this is going to
continue pretty much through Thursday.
Modesto two to three inches San Francisco,
three to four inches.
Now take a look at Grass
Valley areas like Sonora.
We could see as much as
four to seven and a half.
Inches of rainfall in this period.
In these two storm systems that pushed
through so a lot to get through South
Lake Tahoe, four to five inches.
But it's a snow where mostly worried about
for areas in the higher elevations there,
like Tahoe, let's talk snow.
This is going to be a lot and we talk about
travel delays because it's so much snow.
At this point there's really no
point in trying to get through it.
You're going to either be parked on the
side of the road for a very long time,
because even with chains it's
going to be hard to get through.
You want to?
We're going to have to wait
for the plows to get through.
It's just so much snow in in a short
amount of time you're better off
waiting to get through all of this.
Now.
The Winter storm warning is
in effect at 10:00 PM Sunday,
lasting through 10:00 PM on Tuesday.
So 48 hours here and you are
seeing a massive zone in pink.
This is for that winter storm warning.
But take note here north of Redding,
as you start getting up into Oregon,
you will experience a lot more
of that snowfall as well.
So if you have plans to head
up north along I5,
that might be delayed as well.
You may want to wait until.
After Tuesday to get through.
We're talking as much on I-5 in
Dunnes Marist 36 to 60 inches of
snowfall lasts an 82100 inches.
You're not reading these wrong.
I'm talking as much as 6.3 to
about 8 feet of snowfall in a
very short amount of time.
This is where we have Caltrans trying
to clear roads as fast as they can,
but it's going to be a huge delays
for people 60 to 80 inches in eco,
80 to 100 snore, 60 to 80 Carson.
If it's just a lot of snow
in a short amount of time.
And notice how the line
falls all the way down here,
just up above Placerville areas,
round Baxter looking at a little bit of
snow and then the higher up you get.
Of course the snow totals increase.
Now let's take a look at our forecast
here as we move through Tuesday,
we're looking at snow level around
3035 hundred feet we can see as
much as a foot foot and a half
there around all to Blue Canyon,
60 to 80 inches and then the
higher you get Donner Summit we
could see as much as 80 to 100
inches of snow fall off of 50.
We're looking as low as about.
Just up above Placerville,
so Camino Pollock Pines cibers.
Looking at some significant snowfall here,
maybe a foot foot half to two feet of snow.
The higher you get there,
of course we are looking at 60 to 80 inches.
So if you have kids still
in school right now,
this could be a period of time
where we see some of these locations
at least taking a snow day.
Because look how much snow there is
there in Khyber's 18 to 24 inches.
That is a lot all right.
So let's look ahead past these next systems.
We can expect a small break as we start
moving past Wednesday we get a little
bit of rain Wednesday into Thursday.
This moves on through by Friday.
We're starting to clear out and then we
get a little bit of sunshine and nice.
Solid break,
the rain remains further north up into
the Pacific Northwest at that point,
so we are looking here at our 8 to
14 day precipitation outlook and it
looks like most of the entire country
will be in a wetter pattern than we're
used to seeing this time of year.
The only dry spot down there is in Florida.
The Gray zone is pretty much average
or normal to what they're used
to this time of year.
All right, let's talk about the winds.
This is the very last element
of the entire storm system,
the win,
and it's actually going to be pretty.
Significant will see anywhere from
about 15 to 20 mile per hour.
Winds Sunday and you're looking at
Sunday morning and these are just the
sustained winds and we could get some
of the gusts as high as 25 to 35 mph.
Much higher for this year.
Around 45 to 55 mile per hour.
Wind gusts and this is just
the morning hours of Sunday.
Take a look at this now.
We really ramp it up here Monday morning.
We're looking at 25 to 35
mile per hour winds.
The purple shade bearers gusts 40 to 50 mph.
This is across the valley.
The winds coming in out of the South as
that cold front continues to sweep up and
out of the area heading toward the east.
So very strong winds again.
If you have those,
you know Christmas decorations
outside the inflatables.
Things like that those things
are going to get whipped out and
down the street very quickly,
especially your trash cans.
Keep an eye on those as well and then
just make sure any decorations you
have that you don't want blown away.
You either bring them in,
briefly put them back out on Thursday or
Friday, and then you're good with them.
Otherwise try to secure them as
best as possible. I would bring in.
The inflatables all right.
Let's take a look at our temperatures
here for the week.
We are looking at those mid to upper
40s and low 50s throughout the week.
Basically expect every single day to
have some rain from Sunday through
Thursday and we will see that break
finally by Friday and it looks pretty
good as we roll into next week.