Skip to footer

Third storm in a week to bring rain, snow to California

A third winter-like storm in a week will bring much-needed rain and possible thunderstorms to Northern California and snow to the Sierra Nevada.

|
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
Eliki Bastow, 6, visiting from Cambridge, England, watches waves crash on the municipal pier Friday, Dec. 11, 2015, in Pacifica, Calif. The biggest storm to hit the slopes of the Sierra Nevada this season triggered cheers Friday from the snow-starved ski resorts of Northern California and the businesses that surround them.
  • By Staff Associated Press

| SAN FRANCISCO

A third winter-like storm in a week will bring rain and possible thunderstorms to much of Northern California and snow to the Sierra Nevada, forecasters said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Nathan Owen said that after a lull Saturday, a system will move into parched California overnight packing precipitation and strong winds.

Owen says the latest storm will dump slightly less rain in the state than the previous systems — with the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley expected to get up to about half an inch.

"We'll see a very similar storm to what we had the last round with less rain, but we're expecting a good bit of wind for this system," Owen said.

He said winds of up to 55 mph are forecast for Central California.

Higher peaks in the Sierra Nevada could see another foot of snow, more than enough to keep sledders, skiers and snowboarders happy.

Several inches of snow fell on Southern California mountains, bringing joy to ski resorts and cautions for motorists.

Chains were required Saturday on several roads leading to the Bear Mountain and Snow Summit resorts in the San Bernardino Mountains.

A storm Friday dropped six inches at higher elevations and brought rain, hail and thunderstorms elsewhere.

Closer to Los Angeles, the Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood got more than two inches of snow just in time for the weekend.

The National Weather Service said daytime temperatures in the mountains will stay in the 30s through the weekend and that more snow is expected before Monday.

The Southern California coast remains under a high surf advisory through Sunday, with unpredictable waves topping 10 feet.

Forecasters have said a strong El Nino weather system could drench California and other parts of the West in the coming months. However, Johnny Burg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle, said he didn't believe the latest Northwest storms were related to El Nino, a warming in the Pacific Ocean that can alter weather worldwide.

"We just had a jet stream pointed at us, and it brought successive storms," he said. "We don't see the effects until the winter."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Third storm in a week to bring rain, snow to California
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2015/1212/Third-storm-in-a-week-to-bring-rain-snow-to-California
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe