A quick moving storm moved through the area Wednesday night, bringing several inches of snowfall to the Sierra and about a dusting of snow to the valley. The hills got slightly higher amounts, but still less than an inch for most. While we had a fairly weak storm move through, a very strong storm moved through the northeast Wednesday and Thursday. The northeast can get some big snows from lake effect, but this time around it was from a low pressure center itself. Some places even woke up to 40 inches of snow, breaking records. This translates to about three feet of snow. While it only takes a dusting of snow to make roadways slick, heavy snow like that can cause more problems.
We live in an area that can get a lot of snow too, especially in the higher elevations. Tahoe City has seen 40 inches in one day before. That record was set back in April of 1958.
Reno saw about 22 inches of snow on January 17th of 1916. The area also saw nearly 20 inches of snow on January 12th, 1911. We can get a lot of snow in our area especially if we get a lake effect snow band going, or if there is a strong atmospheric river. It’s not unusual for the high Sierra to get feet of snow with one storm alone.
Going forward, it looks dry but it will be cold. I also can’t rule out some patchy fog in the morning, mainly in the Sierra and places like Truckee.
