Sunny Skies and Cooler Today, Increasing Clouds Tomorrow and Rain By Monday

Sunny skies again today and tomorrow, cooler temperatures and increasing clouds tomorrow foretell changes on the way.

The sunny skies overhead today will be accompanied by slightly cooler temperatures than we hit yesterday.  We peaked at 82 yesterday, but won’t make it out of the 70’s today in the valley.  Tomorrow will be similar, but slightly cooler too and late day we’ll see the initial clouds of the ocean storm moving overhead.

Early next week (Monday and Tuesday) we have our first major storm of the year moving in.  With the thick cloud deck and rain expected we won’t be breaking out of the 60’s for highs and will see widespread rain.  Most of the rain will be in the very early hours of the morning, and as of right now, look as though most of the steady rain will end by mid to late afternoon.  That said, we’ll still see residual showers and clouds through all of Monday, and those showers could persist into Tuesday as well.

The National Weather Service in Sacramento has issued a winter storm watch for the Northern Sierra and Southern Cascades for elevations above 5,500 feet.  It goes into effect Sunday night into late Monday evening.  They are expecting 6-9 inches of snow inside the watch area with peaks of 12+ at the highest peaks.  In addition they expect high southerly winds, 10-20 mph, with gusts of 50 or more possible – gusts mostly at the highest and most exposed peaks.  The heaviest snow will likely fall during the day on Monday.

Use extreme caution on the roads during this storm.  In the valley, the roads will be slick due to the buildup of oil and grease throughout the summer and the danger in the mountains is self explanatory.

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And be sure to tune in tonight for your latest forecast on the KRCR Channel 7 News at 4:30, and 11.