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Though moving in much slower than anticipated yesterday, we are still expecting a powerful and high impact storm for the Northstate Thursday through the weekend.
Over the last 12-18 hours majority of our forecast models have slowed down this winter storm by as much as 12-18 hours. What was once thought to be a Wednesday night start is now looking more like a late morning, early afternoon start Thursday.
Snow levels will remain very low in the foothills and mountains. The most difficult variable of the forecast (as usual), is will it snow in Redding? Two factors are playing against snow in Redding. A later start so the air-mass will warm slightly. The second is strong southerly winds. IF the south winds can penetrate the cold air dome in the northern valley, it will quickly mix out the cold air, ending any chance of accumulating snow in Redding.
However, if we get clearing tonight and then a thick cloud deck moves in, followed by an earlier than anticipated precipitation start, the chance for accumulating snow will remain for the northern tip of the valley.
So everything, as usual, needs to come together perfectly.
Moving past valley snow chances, the real threat still remains for mountain locations in Northern Trinity, Northern Shasta and Southern Siskiyou counties.
Snowfall forecast our now shifting to higher than 3ft of snow with many locations likely approaching 5 ft. The three cities we are concerned for are: Dunsmuir, Mt Shasta City and McCloud.
Roads will be a huge concern too. I5, HWY 299, HWY 89, HWY 44, 36 and 32 will all see either full closure or strict chain requirements restrictions.
This first storm is just the first of three storms to impact the Northstate. We are expecting another storm Friday night/Saturday morning and another strong storm late Saturday night.
