Carson City area weekend weather: Valley rain, Sierra snow with potent storm arriving Monday
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Thu, 02/15/2024 - 5:25pm
A winter storm will arrive for the holiday weekend, bringing brief periods of valley rain to the Carson City area and snow to the Sierra by Saturday with a more potent system arriving Monday and extending into early next week, according to the National Weather Service.
Motorists traveling over the mountain passes for skiing or for the Lake Tahoe Winter Reggae Festival for the Presidents Day weekend can expect slick roads and slower travel across the Sierra from Saturday afternoon through early Sunday morning and then again on Monday.
At the time of this writing, the weather service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the greater Lake Tahoe area and Sierra from Saturday morning to Sunday morning, with a Winter Storm Watch from Sunday afternoon to late Tuesday.
Travelers should call 511 or see NVroads.com for the latest road conditions.
The Saturday storm is expected to bring widespread rain and high-elevation snow to the region. The storm should only bring rain shower to the lower valleys, forecasters said.
Snow levels will hover between 6,500 to 7,000 feet during the onset of precipitation before falling to near 6000 feet by Sunday morning, NWS forecasters note in the latest weather discussion, which are updated twice daily.
As such, snow totals will be minimal for lower elevation Sierra communities (Truckee, South Lake Tahoe, Mammoth Lakes, etc.) where a dusting to 3 inches is expected. The Sierra crest will likely receive 4-10 inches of snow with
only a 5-10 percent of reaching a foot through Sunday. Regardless, light snow on Sierra passes will impact travel during busy holiday traffic, so be sure to travel carefully in the mountains this weekend.
Low elevation rainfall will be on the order of a few hundredths with perhaps some locales, mainly well north of I-80,
seeing up to 0.2 of an inch.
Winds will become elevated along the Sierra crest this weekend with promoting gusts of 60-80 mph at times. Valley wind gusts will reach 20-30 mph Saturday afternoon and night under good boundary layer mixing and a frontal passage. Winds should lower Sunday but will remain breezy along ridgetops.
Late Sunday and beyond
Late Sunday will feature a brief reprieve in the unsettled weather before a much more robust winter storm arrives to the region for the first half of next week.
There is high confidence in this storm bringing heavy snow to the high Sierra, especially for Alpine and Mono counties where there is a 30 to 60 percent chance of seeing 3 feet of snow between Monday and Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Sierra crest around and north of the Tahoe Basin only has a 10-20 percent chance of reaching such amounts. Furthermore, Sierra communities at lake level have a 10-30 percent chance of receiving a foot of snow during this same timeframe. The storm is shaping up to be quite the Sierra snow-maker so plan on very difficult travel across Sierra passes.
Lower western Nevada valleys will see rain during this storm, although surrounding foothills/Virginia City may see some snowfall at the tail end as snow levels fall.
Rainfall totals across western Nevada will vary from a few hundredths to a few tenths. The unknown, however, is that some weather models suggest the potential for heavier showers bringing greater rainfall and perhaps even some thunderstorms Monday afternoon across western Nevada. While a few lingering showers are possible, much of the showers will taper off on Wednesday.
Stay tuned and check back for updates.
