Weather Forecast: Winter Storm Watch Posted For Mtns. Ahead of Tomorrow's Storm

Redding, Chico & Red Bluff

By Rob Elvington

POSTED: 9:32 AM Mar 04 2013

Clouds will begin to break up through the morning and  afternoon hours today, with valley highs in the upper 60s.  Our next cold front will begin to move in by Tuesday afternoon.

A light moisture flow continues to push up the valley floor, bringing stratus clouds to the valley.  These clouds should begin to break up by this afternoon.

By tomorrow we will likely be tracking our wettest system in the last month.  We have to go all the way back to February 7th since we last picked up .51" of rain at the Redding Airport.

The cold front will begin to slide in by the mid afternoon hours.  Trinity and Siskiyou county as usual will be the first to see the rain and mountain snow.  Snow levels will likely start our fairly high, above 4,000ft, but should begin to drop as we head into Tuesday night.

The valley will can expect to start seeing rain by around 4-5:00pm.  Rain will be heavy at times but there will be a quick cut off by the night time hours.

Behind the initial cold front colder air aloft will begin to filter in, along with several impulses of energy.  For the mountains we can expect snow showers overnight and into Wednesday morning and into Wednesday afternoon.

If we see some clearing Wednesday afternoon, we can expect to see the development of thunderstorms in the valley floor.

By Thursday afternoon the back side of our storm will move in.  This could dry and stabilize the atmosphere enough to eliminate the threat of valley thunderstorms, still need to keep a close eye on it.