Alert days next week: Heavy Sierra snow will have a major impact on travel
impact
A parade of cold winter storms will bring heavy snow to the Sierra next week along with rounds of rain and windy conditions for the Valley and lower Foothills.
snow level
The KCRA 3 weather team is issuing weather Alert Days for Monday and Tuesday. Intense snowfall rates and strong winds will make travel difficult to impossible above 5000 feet. The snow level will drop as low as 3000 feet.
snow
Sign up for our NewslettersWednesday is a KCRA 3 weather Impact Day. Snow will continue to fall, but the intensity will ease. Long delays are still likely throughout the day.
The Valley and Foothills will have stormy weather to deal with each of these days, too.
Below is a breakdown of what the KCRA 3 weather team is expecting.
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Snow
Mountain snow is in the forecast any time between Sunday night and Wednesday.
Snow will be heaviest late Monday through Tuesday night. During this time, snow could accumulate at one to two inches per hour. This combined with strong winds could create blizzard-like conditions with near-zero visibility.
Sunday's snow level will be around 5500 feet. By Monday, the snow level will drop to 4000 feet. Tuesday and Wednesday could see the snow level bottom out around 3000 feet.
Donner and Echo Summit could pick up three to five feet of snow between Monday and Wednesday. Similar totals are possible down to 5000 feet which includes places like Blue Canyon.
People living at 4000 feet should prepare for the possibility of disruptive snowfall and closures next week. A foot of snow is possible at this elevation.
Some accumulation is possible as low as 3000 feet. The KCRA 3 weather team will focus in on numbers for lower elevations over the next couple of days.
Rain
Rainfall totals will pale in comparison to snow numbers next week.
The storm track will bring systems in from the north where air tends to be dry, rather than from the south which tends to breed warm, wet storms.
There is no atmopsheric river connection with next week's pattern.
The Sacramento Valley will see one to two inches of rain between Sunday night and Wednesday. Lower numbers are forecast for the San Joaquin Valley.
The Foothills will see up to four inches of rain over three days.
Rain totals in these ranges are enough to keep things wet for several days and there may be some street flooding in poor drainage areas.
Creeks, streams and rivers will not flood.
Wind
Next week will be windy at times as lines of precipitation move across the Valley and into the Sierra.
The Valley and Foothills may experience wind gusts near 40 mph for a few hours at a time. Gusts over the Sierra summits could top 60 mph.
Wind gusts of 40 mph can make a mess of any yard furniture, décor or trash bins, but major damage is not currently expected.
Winds could trigger outages in the Sierra.
Starting this weekend, high resolution forecast models will give the KCRA 3 weather team better insight into specific wind strength.
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