California Snowy Weather Update

Sierra in California is buried in more than 100 inches of snow. The Park Pines area could see three to five inches of snow. Meanwhile, it’s not snow to be looking out for Sunday onwards in Placerville but rain.

Snowy Mountains

California welcomed 2022 with more mountain snow and valley rain that will continue to challenge holiday travel through New Year’s Eve.

Snow measured in multiple feet has buried the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and Nevada and some coastal ranges of Northern California.

Pacific Northwest and the Sierra Nevada

Ice, snow, and the cold of the Pacific Northwest and the Sierra Nevada all-year-round continue to disrupt traffic, causing closures and forcing people to evacuate to shelters. The I80 and US50 are open, but Caltrans said Wednesday that travel to the Tahoe area should continue to be restricted. Due to traffic congestion, the crew cannot plow the highway.

According to meteorological historian Christopher Bert:

By Wednesday morning, the Central Sierra Snow Institute has set a new record for 210-inch snow. According to meteorological historian Christopher Bert, this is the most extreme December snowfall recorded in California, surpassing the 185-inch December snowfall near Donor Pass in December 1889.

This mixture of lots of snow and heavy winds disabled the journey across Sierra. Interstate Highway 80 was finally emptied and opened on Wednesday. Many fallen trees, as well as a few meters of snow, challenged the Caltrans road crew.

California Snowy Weather Update
California Snowy Weather Update

According to PG & E’s power outage map

According to PG & E’s power outage map, it did not power over 65,000 Electric Company and Pacific Gas customers in the KCRA3 coverage area. Most of the blackouts occurred in Nevada and El Dorado counties.

“Access is still difficult. Snow prevents us from patrolling. Many lanes stay closed, and climate situations prevent us from using the plane,” said Karly Hernandez, a PG & E spokeswoman. increase. “We rate at lower altitudes, but in many areas, it is still inaccessible due to extreme weather events.”

Additional Rain, Snow Forecast

Further upsurge in the northern Sierra should typically be less than 6 inches by the time the snow finally subsides. However, about a foot of additional snow can occur in the southern Sierra. This additional snowfall is far from the level of snow that has already fallen, but it can still exacerbate the headaches of traveling in Sierra.

Until Thursday, heavy snowfall is expected in the highlands of Southern California at altitudes of over 5,000 feet. There can be a slight amount of snow in Southern California, leading to a slippery ride.

Forecast Timeline

Northern Sierra snow and Northern California rains usually end next week. Rain and snow in Southern California and the Southland Mountains will not be on Monday.

According to PG & E, the Sierra business has about 52,000 customers without electricity. This is how the district categorizes this total.

  • El Dorado: 20,500
  • Nevada: 24,200
  • Calaveras: 7,200
  • Sierra: 500
  • Placer: 9,000
  • Amador: 7,000

‘Goldilocks’ Scenario For Drought Relief

Recently, there has been some good news about the drought in California. In the past few weeks, a series of storms have snowed Sierra, bringing previously poor snow cover to well above the average for this period after the dry November.

In fact, according to the California Department of Water Resources, rainfall since autumn in northern Sierra is one of the rainiest beginnings of the rainy season. Sierra Snowpacks generally provide about one-third of California’s water when melting and recharging California’s reservoirs in late spring and summer. However, numerous of the state’s pools are still smaller than normal after almost two years of drought.

Expected Snow

California’s Central Sierra Nevada Peaks have seen more snow this month than any December in recorded history. And it’s not particularly tight. The University of California, Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab set a new record of 193.7 inches (16 feet or more) on Monday morning after climbing more than 3 feet in 24 hours. When the 179-inch fell in 1970, it “brought” the record before December, the snowiest month in Central Sierra, the lab said on web-based media. And that month isn’t over yet.

Sierra’s dangerously low snow cover was better when the State Department of Water Resources declared on Monday that snow cover across the region was between normal 145% and 161%, with more snow expected.

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