A strong cold storm will bring heavy snow accumulations to the mountains and rain for most of the valley.

Wednesday will be the transition day from the fairly dry and cool weather we have been experiencing the last few days to a wet weather pattern for Thursday through Sunday.  By Thursday morning the moderate to heavy snow will arrive in Trinity, Siskiyou and Northern Shasta Counties including Weaverville/Hayfork, Mount Shasta City and McCloud.  It should still be dry in the valley and mountains to the east.  It’s really not until the afternoon when the valley will finally start getting wet.  Since we are seeing the storm slow down this will decrease the chances for snow in Redding because this will allow more time for Redding to warm by a few degrees.  We are also watching the winds very closely because if there are strong south winds in Redding all bets are off for snow in Redding.  Stay tuned for updates …

Since we are talking about the potential for snow in the valley this means we will have very low snow levels which will impact travel on all highways.  I-5 could be looking at a closure throughout the day on Thursday along with other closures and chain requirements on all of the mountain highways.  On Thursday alone 2 to 3 feet of snow is possible for some places above 3000 like Mount Shasta City, McCloud and Chester (just to name a few).  This does not include the snow we will see on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with upwards of 5 feet once all is said and done.  Rainfall totals will also be fairly impressive with 2 to 4 inches in the valley.

After Thursday the snow levels are expected to be between 1500 and 2500 feet through Sunday before we dry things out on Christmas Eve and Christmas day but it will still be cool with highs in the upper 40’s.