Weather Forecast: Winter Storm On The Way
Redding, Chico, Red Bluff
By Mike Krueger
It was noticeably cooler on Wednesday with highs only reaching the low to mid 70’s in the valley with increasing clouds in advance of the approaching storm.
The storm will be felt by all on Thursday as the storm starts to move through. Valley temperatures will be in the low to mid 50’s which is about a 25 to 30 degree drop from Monday. Although there really isn’t a lot of moisture for this storm to work with the bulk of any rain in the valley will be on Thursday with isolated showers on Friday. We could also be looking at a chance for isolated thunderstorms on both Thursday and Friday with hail, brief periods of heavy rain and lightning. Once all is said and done, the valley is only expected to pick up between a tenth to a quarter of an inch of rain.
Snow levels will be fairly low with this storm starting off around 3000 feet on Thursday and dropping to as low as 2000 feet by Friday. We could see a few inches of accumulation in some of the lower elevations but most of the snow will fall above 5000 feet with between 6 and 12 inches. With snow levels this low there could be travel delays on the mountain passes so be sure to check the latest road conditions before travelling in the mountains on Thursday and Friday. The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for most of the mountains. Click the link for more information. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sto/
It should dry out by the weekend but there will still be some cold air in place keeping our temperatures in the upper 50’s and lower 60’s.