Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Good morning from the National Weather Service Office in Sacramento. It is Tuesday, January
22nd, 2013. During this quick weather briefing, we will discuss the upcoming winter storms
that will finally put an end to our more than two weeks of mild, dry weather.
This image shows the latest precipitation calculations from the Northern Sierra: 8-Station
Index as of January 20th, and is courtesy of the California Department of Water Resources.
The last measureable precipitation occurred January 6th, as shown by the arrow. However
despite this dry spell, much of interior northern California is still above normal thanks to
two major winter storms this past December. Well, the weather pattern is about to finally
change. The is today’s weather story. Precipitation
returns tomorrow morning, Wednesday, and continues overnight as a fairly weak system moves over
the area. We only expect around ½ an inch or less of precipitation mainly across areas
northward of Interstate 80. The mountains should see the most precipitation with the
valley expecting less than ¼ of an inch. This will be a fairly warm system as snow
levels will range from 6000 to 7000 feet. As a result, we don’t expect any significant
snow accumulations with this initial storm. Thursday and Friday should be dry with the
next storm coming this weekend. This satellite image shows the high pressure
system that has been impacting northern California and the two low pressure systems that will
likely impact the area over the next 5 to 6 days. Preliminary estimates put around ½
an inch of rain in the valley this weekend. A couple feet of snowfall could potentially
fall over higher elevations, as snow levels could drop from 5500 to 6500 feet on Saturday
to around 2500 to 3500 feet Sunday night into Monday. Winds across higher elevations will
likely be breezy, but winds in general are not expected to have a major impact.
Please stay tuned for weather updates on our webpage at weather.gov/sacramento, on facebook
at facebook.com/NWS.Sacramento, or on twitter at twitter.com/NWSSacramento.