Sierra Braces for a Strong Storm
Reno National Weather Service forecasters said the storm could potentially flood the Feather River at Portola in the Sierra. It will be the biggest storm the Sierra has seen in April in a decade, said forecaster Scott McGuire.
Storm warnings posted from the Oregon border down through the northern Sierra Nevada call for about 6 inches to 12 inches of snow at elevations above 4,500 feet, and between 2 feet and 4 feet at elevations above 6,000 feet.
Electronic monitors last week showed the Sierra’s snowpack was at 164 percent of normal. It was the most dense springtime snowpack since 2011, a year followed by five years of harsh drought.
A Record-breaking Year of Rain
The Reno weather service office said this was all the result of another so-called atmospheric river, a plume of moisture stretching out into the Pacific.

This series of “Pineapple express” storms has brought California an average of 27.81 inches of precipitation from October to February, making this the wettest year on record since 1895, according to data released Wednesday by the National Centers for Environmental Information, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
While the record-breaking rain in recent months has put a major dent in more than five years of drought in the state, it also led rivers and creeks to break their banks and wreaked havoc on the state’s infrastructure.
Lisa Pickoff-White and the Associated Press contributed to this report.