Hi, I'm meteorologist Carly Gomez,
tracking the conditions for winter
Storm #2 center drive in the overnight
hours into Saturday morning.
Now as of about 7:00 PM or so,
we're still seeing a lot of cars
driving through Hwy 80 Donner Summit.
We've been looking at 50 as well.
So far looking good, although there
are starting to see approaching
clouds coming through on our radar,
indicating showers are
expected to arrive very soon.
In the next few hours,
we should see some bigger
impacts there at Donner Summit,
our winter weather.
They're really not advised for the weekend,
especially through the Sierra
and especially on Saturday.
Now we are looking at
rain creating slick roads.
We know that just Saturdays event
could bring us 1 1/2 inches in
the valley and then into Sunday
additional rain creating slick roads,
ponding on the roadways and if there
still leaves out there of course slippery.
Now strong winds are also moving
in through the overnight hours.
These are going to be incredibly strong.
I'm talking sustained winds as high
as 25 to 30 mph and then finally
letting up into the afternoon evening.
Hours now you will want to watch out
for debris not only on the roadways
there but also near your house,
anything that could hit a window,
any kind of down limbs and we could
even see some potential for power
outages due to those strong winds.
Now with the Sierra Snow coming in,
this is also going to create
whiteout conditions with those
gusty winds for the High Sierra,
but we're also going to look at a potential
for avalanche conditions as well.
So again,
travel not really advised at all,
but we will see those valley downpours
starting up early morning hours
Saturday along with that heavy
Sierra Snow and then the wind gusts.
Throughout your Saturday,
we are looking here at a low
pressure system creating quite
the dip here in the jet stream.
You can see that it is troughing
just S here into the areas pushing
into Southern California.
So as this begins to move in
pushing in through the northwest
corner of the state as of 7:00 PM,
We will continue to see that pushing
through through the overnight hours.
And along that cold front,
very strong winds,
those winds bring in a cold Arctic
air along with it and that's going
to really impact areas here with
a lot of moisture for the Sierra.
Through the overnight hours now
we're currently seeing just a
few little spots here,
some scattered light showers,
but this is not impacting
major roadways just yet.
We do expect though into your Saturday
and Sunday to see Rd closures,
especially intermittently as
a lot of this continues on and
accumulates feet of snow.
For the next 48 hours,
the impacts are going to be this
winter storm warning, Friday night,
10:00 PM here through Monday,
4:00 AM,
two to five feet is expected above 3500 feet.
Now 3500 feet is where we're going to
see really accumulations.
Starting up about 6 to 8 inches
below that we could see snow
levels dropping to about 2500
feet with maybe a light dusting,
just no major accumulations.
At that point.
Wind gusts could be about 45 plus mph,
creating again blowing snow,
reducing visibility.
If you do not have to drive,
please do not do so.
You have to wait at least until Monday now.
The wind advisory will be in effect
late tonight into Saturday about
3:00 PM for most of the valley
spots up even into the foothills.
Now again we are looking at very strong
winds and gusts from the valley.
The Sierra creating potential for
power outages with those downed trees
or branches or anything that could
really hit a power pole or power line.
Now because of the strong winds and the
Sierra we're now seeing an avalanche watch.
This is for Saturday morning through
Sunday morning with that blowing snow.
Now as that snow accumulates
and just piles up,
you have the the winds just really
hitting hard on it creating
potential for avalanche activity.
So that is another reason travel not
advised #1 or really even hitting
some of those slopes or Backcountry
areas and we're seeing 10 to 15 mile.
Or our winds coming in right around 2:00 AM.
So this is where it starts kicking
up for everyone over Northern
California from Modesto N.
Even the High Sierra starts
picking up at 2:00 AM.
So you might actually wake up
to some of these loud noises.
Check this out.
As we start getting to about
7:00 AM you're seeing some of the
strongest winds pushing through
areas like Elk Grove at 31 mph.
And take a look at the legend here,
this purple shade.
These are where we could see some
of the gusts reaching anywhere
from 3545 mph topping 50 plus mph,
some about a higher elevations,
peaks and ridges.
And then we also see some of
those stronger winds also into
those Foothill spots.
Now this continues pretty much
throughout the morning into your
lunchtime hour and by 2:00 PM,
still pretty strong,
although most of this begins to shift
its way further E you're looking
at a lot of the stronger winds now
picking up for areas around Yosemite
and pushing up and over toward Nevada.
Finally, into your evening hours,
things slow down.
It's around 11:00 PM we finally
get 5 to 10 mile per hour winds,
fairly normal winds,
but even Foothill spots are still
pretty windy and gusty at that hour.
Alright,
let's talk about the timing of the system.
That arrives on our radar.
We are seeing around 2:00 AM,
some of the snow starts to pick
up a little bit more closer to
trunky and you're starting to
get a defined line here of rain
starting to move in as well.
So a lot of that wind first coming
in and then the rain following.
So we start to get that rain pushing in and
it's still mixed up with a lot of that wind.
So as it beats on your car windshield and if
you're just driving out in the morning maybe
just to go get some breakfast out there,
you are going to have some issues
with ponding on the roadways.
It's going to be hard to see.
The windshield wipers are
going very fast at this point.
Time you may want to just
hold out a little longer,
at least till you get to lunchtime.
These are going to be very intense downpours,
8:30 AM, as a lot of really Northern
California's valleys are getting hit
all the way from Chico down towards Stockton.
It will continue to shift
its way toward the southeast.
We continue our morning on and early
afternoon with those heavy downpours.
Finally we get a small tiny break here in
the system around 5:00 PM or mostly cloudy.
A few scattered showers start moving in,
but there's still a few lines of showers
that will continue to move their way.
For the SE meanwhile,
you're still looking at a lot
of snow for this year.
Just accumulating even snow levels
into the nighttime hours into Sunday
morning will begin to drop and drop
even lower into Monday morning as we
start to get a lot colder air coming
in and meeting up with this rain,
freezing it at lower levels
now around midnight,
you see we're starting to
pick up that rain once again,
so we will have some small moments
where you may be able to sneak out,
but really it's going to be a pretty much
an all day event with that heavy rain
coming down overnight again Sunday and then.
Finally, by 8:00 AM you start
to get a little more clearing.
So that's the good news.
By Sunday morning we should be a
little better in the valley spots.
Still pretty bad though for
Foothills and the High Sierra.
Now,
we will expect to see some thunderstorm
chances by the afternoon and that's because
you're still getting a lot of moisture.
Now mixing with that sunshine.
You're creating instability and that
unstable weather there is kind of clashing.
So we create those thunderstorm
chances in the atmosphere.
When those kind of situations
and conditions arise,
they're looking at about Monday lunchtime.
The only thing left over there is a few
clouds for the High Sierra and the foothills,
and you're still seeing some small
lingering effects of snowfall.
Otherwise that'll be the end of it.
And we can go on with our work
week with more sunshine,
but we are looking at Saturday with
as much as about 1 1/2 inches of
rain expected for most valley spots.
Some areas could see a little more,
like Modesto Turlock closer to 2 inches,
and then finally as we move into Sunday,
that 1 1/2 turns to two inches in Sacramento,
two 2 1/2 inches in Modesto,
acquiring another half inch to maybe 3.
Quarters of an inch on Sunday,
so a lot of rain for the weekend.
Just kind of wanting to limit your
outdoor activities at that point in time,
looking at snow levels dropping to
as low as 2500 feet into Sunday.
But really all we're going to expect
to see here is it's around 3500 feet,
range 6 to 8 inches, Alta.
We could see as much as five feet
around areas like Blue Canyon,
60 to 80 inches at kingvale and this is
really for the entirety of the storm
system from Saturday through Monday.
Now we're also looking at 50 here.
Dropping again to about 3500 feet
and 36 to 48 inches is expected
Echo summit in twin bridges and
about 1 1/2 to 2 feet there for Lake
Tahoe over this next two days.
Now as we take a look at some
of the numbers once again,
you can see really in a full
effect how much snow is coming in,
especially for areas like Carson
40 to 80 inches, Carson, Evans,
just so much snow on the way.
And if you have plans to travel long I5 N
of Redding to the Sisku mountain passage,
you're looking at about 1 1/2 to 2 feet
of snow, so 1824 inches is expected.
Again,
not worth traveling if you're going
to be stuck on the side of the
road because it's not necessarily
the fact that you may or may not
be able to get through.
It's the fact that they may close
the highways down even if you have
the utility vehicle to do so.
It's really about whether or not
CHP is going to close the highway.
Looking at Sunday, 52 degrees.
We do drop off into those upper 40s Tuesday,
Wednesday, but sunshine comes in.
But because we're clearing skies overnight,
you're looking at overnight lows
at 32 degrees.
Very chilly there,
will continue into next week
in those mid to low 50s.
We do have some more chances of rain on
the horizon for the following weekend.