Wednesday November 30, 2022
The Mercury News —
Boosting what has been a mediocre start so far to the winter season, a storm from the Pacific Northwest is expected to bring widespread rain to the Bay Area early Thursday and blanket the Sierra Nevada with up to 3 feet of new snow.
“This is a pretty good event. It’s going to be beneficial across the board,” said Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey. “We are excited for this one.”
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for the Sierra Nevada from Wednesday night through Friday morning, with a forecast of 1 to 3 feet of snow, poor visibility and high winds at higher elevations. Snow levels should range from 3,500 to 5,000 feet.
The storm system would be the first significant rain or snow in Northern California in more than three weeks, and comes as the state is entering its fourth year of drought. A hoped-for storm fizzled last weekend, but this one is on track, forecasters say.
Cities around the Bay, including San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland, should receive about 1 inch of rain on Thursday as the storm moves in from the north, Murdock said. Coastal mountains in the North Bay, Santa Cruz area and Big Sur are expected to receive as much as 2 inches.