One last roar for Lodi area’s rainy March
March came in like a muchneeded lion this year, and it’s about to get in one last roar before it goes out like a lamb.
“We have what looks like a pretty large storm system that’s going to affect us for a few days,” said Dave Samuel, a senior meteorologist with private forecasting service Accuweather.com.
The rain looks ready to start very early this morning, he said. The Lodi area should see on-again, off-again showers throughout the day, with rain picking up tonight.
“It’s going to come in two waves,” Samuel said — tonight into Wednesday, then a lull before another drenching from Wednesday night into Thursday.
All in all, the Lodi area can expect anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of precipitation before Friday, Samuel said.
The heavy rain is thanks to a “pineapple express” similar to many of last year’s storms.
“That term is used when it has a moisture connection to the Central Pacific,” Samuel said.
Today is expecting a high of 61, but Wednesday could warm up to 66, with a high of 56 overnight into Thursday.
That warmth isn’t likely to last through the weekend, though, Samuel said.
The rainy weather is expected to stretch down to Los Angeles and San Diego.
Donner Pass is expecting rain showers to begin turning into snow by Wednesday evening, with moderate to heavy snowfall on Thursday, according to the Reno office of the National Weather Service. Snow showers are expected to continue through Sunday.
Mono County is expecting similar weather, the Reno office said.
Thanks to the wet March, things are looking a lot closer to normal in California than they were a month ago.
On Feb. 20, the rainfall season to date was 6.36 inches, more than 5.5 inches behind the average. After adding March’s rain — so far — the season to date is 10.35 inches, and the gap has been closed to just barely more than 4 inches.
The snowpack water volume in areas of the Sierra that feed the Sacramento River averaged about 50 percent of normal as of March 1, but it’s grown plenty since then, Samuel said.
“These storms since March 1 have been chilly storms, so the snow levels have been really low (in altitude),” he said.
Still, it has a ways to go before it matches 1991’s “Miracle March.”
That year, March opened with a snowpack ranging from 16 to 20 percent of normal, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. By the end of March, it had reached 80 percent in some places.
Hydrologist Jeff Anderson, who works for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, created a chart of this year’s progress. It’s been following in 1991’s footsteps so far, he told the Reno newspaper.
“With more storms on the horizon, it might just continue to do so,” he said.
While the region’s not there yet, recent rain and snow has made a dent in the deficit.
Thursday’s storm was the fourth-largest ever recorded in the Tahoe Basin, the Gazette-Journal reported.
The U.S. Climate Prediction Center, which a month ago foresaw a return to drought for nearly all of California by the end of May, has adjusted its prediction. The current outlook shows most of Northern California is likely to remain drought-free until at least June 30, though Southern California will still be dryer than usual.
With any luck, this week’s rain will help close the gap a little more.
The coming storm may also be a boon for skiers — if they can get to the Sierra safely.
The latter half of the week could see between 1 and 3 feet of snow on the slopes of the Sierra above 7,000 feet, meteorologist Tom Dang of the National Weather Service’s Sacramento bureau told the San Jose Mercury News.
“It looks like the kind of powder that skiers in general tend to like, that light fluffy stuff, so not the Sierra cement,” Dang said.
The snow on Thursday and Friday could be preceded by cold rains today and Wednesday, so skiing conditions would be harder those days, he said.
Those looking to head up to the Sierra at the end of the week would be wise to plan extra time and bring along snow chains, Dang said. The road conditions could be hazardous, and an occasional road closure isn’t out of the question.
“Probably (there will be) pretty low visibility driving over the mountain — really slippery conditions,” he said.