Last week’s brief break from the seemingly endless barrage of drought-busting and deadly storms in California are ending abruptly as another round of storms from the Pacific move onshore.
AccuWeather experts say additional rounds of heavy rain and mountain snow are in store for the hard-hit state, and a storm that will occur from Tuesday into Wednesday will pack the most punch. The most recent atmospheric river to impact the state lasted from the past Monday through Wednesday. That wave came on the heels of another atmospheric river that slammed the state on Friday, March 10, bringing down snowpack and flooding many regions across the state.
“This new round of snow and rainfall is set to affect areas that received heavy amounts of precipitation just last week,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Aaron Druckmiller said.
The cumulative effect of the intense precipitation amounts throughout the winter months has led to remarkable improvements in the long-term drought that plagued California prior to the start of winter. According to the latest report published by the United States Drought Monitor on March 16, approximately 36% of the state is in drought compared to 98% at the beginning of October.
AccuWeather meteorologists believe that all or much of California may be drought-free by the start of the summer season. “Short-term pain, long-term gain. All of this wetness has completely obliterated what was a very significant drought in California,” AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.
The additional precipitation expected in the coming days will continue to result in drought improvements while also exacerbating the negative impacts the state has dealt with amid the relentless pattern, including frequent flooding, mudslides and destructive winds.
AccuWeather meteorologists say the storm from Sunday to Monday ends the brief reprieve from wet weather, spreading light to moderate rainfall across Northern and Central California with a resurgence of snow in the high terrain. But a stronger, more moisture-laden storm will quickly follow on its heels by Tuesday. There will be a direct feed of tropical moisture into California with this storm next week, according to Rayno.
The heaviest rain on Tuesday is likely to center on areas from Monterey, California, southward to the Los Angeles Basin and the high terrain of Southern California. About 2 to 4 inches of rain can fall in portions of this corridor, as well as across the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 10 inches is most likely in the mountains of Southern California.
“This heavy rain is set to result in difficult travel, with renewed flooding making some roads inundated and thus impassable,” Druckmiller said.
Colder air wrapping around the center of the storm will result in another dose of heavy snowfall for mountain communities that have been cut off in some instances due to the volume of snow that has fallen. Snow is going to be heaviest in the southern Sierra where another couple of feet of snow could accumulate, according to Rayno.
Travel over Interstate 80’s Donner Pass may become impossible later Tuesday into Tuesday night as heavy snow rates could make it difficult for road crews to keep the highway clear. “Some of the mountain passes that cut through the Sierra are expected to become hazardous or even closed due to the continued snowfall in the region,” Druckmiller said.
The additional bouts of wintry weather will further increase the snowpack in the Sierra, which is running as high as 272% above the historical average in southern portions of the mountain range. “I’m really concerned that we’re going to be dealing with flooding in many of the rivers here in California as we head through spring because we have such a tremendous amount of snow that will be melting in the Sierra,” Rayno said.
AccuWeather’s team of long-range forecasters says more storms are likely to impact the state right through the end of the month.
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