Rain will expand into the San Francisco Bay Area and northern San Joaquin Valley Tuesday afternoon. “The main spots prone to flooding will be just north of San Francisco Bay in areas of rugged terrain and in the Sierra foothills of Central California,” according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Kai Kerkow.
Wind gusts of 40-50 mph are expected along the Northwest Coast on Sunday, which could result in isolated power outages and downed tree limbs.
Heavy, wet mountain snow expected
Snow levels will be much higher than with the storm last week.
The storm will push the Sierra snow moisture content even closer to the historical average. According to the latest snowpack data, the Northern Sierra remains 12% below the historical average, while the Central and Southern Sierra are 16–21% below average. Even after the monster storm last week, the water content in the snow is still below average simply due to the large gap between winter storms this year.
Snow totaling 5-10 inches will blanket the Cascades into the Siskiyou Mountains this weekend. Avalanche risk will increase above 4,500 feet, particularly where heavy, wet snow accumulates.
Across the Cascades and Siskiyou Mountains above 4,500 feet, 5-10 inches of heavy wet snow is expected this weekend. The storm will shift into the northern Rockies Tuesday into Wednesday, with 8-12 inches of snow expected above 5,500 feet.