Winter Is Coming: Storms Soak Bay Area Next Week, Drop 2 Feet of Fresh Snow on Tahoe

It’s going to get wet over the next week across the Bay Area and the Sierra Nevada.

That’s good news for local water supplies and the state’s subpar snowpack, but the coming cold system could complicate travel to the slopes for winter sports enthusiasts.

National Weather Service forecasters said they expect multiple bands of precipitation to move over Northern California starting Saturday and lasting through late next week. A cold, large low-pressure system will start to dip down on Saturday from the Gulf of Alaska, producing waves of rain and snow.

Forecasters said the rain will start falling Saturday evening across the Bay Area and last through at least Wednesday. Rain totals vary widely across the region. Cities like Gilroy and San José could receive as much as 2.5 inches of rain.

More than 3 inches could fall in San Francisco and San Rafael could get more than 4.5 inches of rain. Coastal mountains could see more than 5 inches of rain over the next week.

“We were mostly dry in the mid- to latter-half of January, so all this rain is very beneficial,” Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office, told KQED.

Gass said he doesn’t expect major flooding from the multiple rounds of rain, especially since the system isn’t an atmospheric river, which can douse the region in rain and cause flash flooding. But he said the highest peaks in the coastal mountain range could get some snow since temperatures are trending 5 to 10 degrees below average.

“Snow is definitely a possibility because they’re going to be colder systems than what we’ve previously seen earlier in the winter,” Gass said.

Forecasters expect the system to impact the Sierra Nevada starting late Sunday, with heavy snow starting Monday. More than 4 feet of snow could fall in the Sierra Nevada next week — a huge boost for the state’s snowpack, which is currently at about 54% of normal for this time of year.

“It’s going to pack a punch for the snowpack and help us a lot,” said Justin Collins, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Reno office. “Around Lake Tahoe, we could see anywhere from 1 to 2 feet of snow.”

Sara Purdue, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Sacramento Office, said snow levels could drop below 3,000 feet on Tuesday, making travel across mountain highways next week potentially “hazardous.”

“Try to get any traveling done on Saturday at the latest because we’re going to see potentially moderate to heavy snow through Wednesday,” Purdue said.

But the influx of snow could quickly change ski conditions in the Sierra Nevada from wet, spring-like snow to a light, cold, fluffy surface that skiers and snowboarders love.

“Winter is back, and we are fully back in the swing of things,” said Jake Stern, content and communications manager for the Sierra at Tahoe ski resort. “It’s going to be full-on February, Sierra Nevada powder skiing.”

Patrick Lacey, public relations manager for Palisades Tahoe, encouraged anyone traveling for the three-day weekend to monitor the forecast and drive carefully, especially on Monday, when snowfall is expected to increase.

Lacey said all the snow in the forecast is promising for a great rest of the season.

“We’re looking at 53 inches of snow, and this storm cycle continues quite a bit into the future; there’s snow every single day on the 15-day forecast,” Lacey said.

But how long will this cold weather last? Gass, with the weather service, said the wet pattern is in motion for the foreseeable future, “but how long it’s going to last, we’re not really sure.”

Not knowing when the snow will stop isn’t a bad thing for ski resorts.

“Most of our snow in Tahoe typically falls in February and March,” Stern said. “The season is not over. It’s kind of just getting started.”