Incoming storm: Am I reading this right?!?

[Wandering Daisy]

I just looked at the NWS forecast, and put my point on Purple Lake, 10,000 feet.

Tue night - 13-19 inches
Wed day- 35-41 inches
Wed night- 24-30 inches
Thurs day-16-22 inches
Thurs night- 10-14 inches
Friday- 1-2 inches

temperatures in the teens
wind up to 40 mph

There also is a graphic of forecast storm totals from the Hanford NWS that is literally off the charts. I think there are locations east of Fresno that have even larger snow totals.

I am wondering if this is an error or am I reading it all wrong?

[maverick]

Virginia Lakes:

This Afternoon
Partly sunny, with a high near 13. Wind chill values as low as -5. South southwest wind around 10 mph, with gusts as high as 15 mph.

Tonight
Snow, mainly after 9pm. The snow could be heavy at times. Temperature rising to around 16 by 4am. Wind chill values as low as -6. Breezy, with a south wind 15 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 14 to 20 inches possible.

Wednesday
Snow. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 18. Wind chill values as low as -4. Breezy, with a south wind 20 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 36 to 42 inches possible.

Wednesday Night
Snow. The snow could be heavy at times. Low around 17. Wind chill values as low as -1. Breezy, with a south wind around 25 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 25 to 31 inches possible.

Thursday
Snow. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 19. Breezy, with a south southwest wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 17 to 23 inches possible.

Thursday Night
Snow. The snow could be heavy at times. Low around 13. Southwest wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 10 to 16 inches possible.

Friday
Snow. High near 17. West southwest wind around 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.

Radio reported 8-10 feet of snow by Friday, and 100 mph winds on the highest peaks.

[Snowtrout]

Yes, you are reading it right. Shaver/Huntington is forecasted for 8-10' of snow and Fresno is expecting 3-4" of rain. Should be interesting over the next few days.

[dave54]

Plenty of gas for the snowblower and generator. Pantry stocked up on food.
Firewood stacked by the door.
Several new books on my kindle.
A couple of unwatched movies on DVD.

Let it rip!

[SSSdave]

Skiers have been watching this approach for a week plus. Large multi foot multi day storms like this have happened a few times each decade. Most such storms tend to be warmer while this is nice cold providing lighter drier snow. Instead of targeting my 3 Tahoe season pass resorts that will likely have highway closures, hope to ski Friday at Dodge Ridge up near Pinecrest on SR108 though may ski Thursday if the storm wanes earlier. If so will drive up to Red Hills BLM area Thursday evening to overnight disperse camp in my Forester, then get up at dawn Friday to drive the rest of the way on SR108, guarantying I won't get stuck behind others. Am likely to use my new GoPro Hero 8 helmet mounted for the first time so may be able to eventually post videos once I revive my neglected Google Youtube account.

[TahoeJeff]

Tahoe... will likely have highway closures

Gawd I hope so!

Blizzard Warning:

https://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx. ... =-119.9377

[balzaccom]

That is a TON of snow. Hope everyone stays safe.

[Harlen]

Maverick wrote:

Radio reported 8-10 feet of snow by Friday, and 100 mph winds on the highest peaks.

We could do without the accompanying wind! I wonder how soon this amount of semi-cold snow will set up for skiing? Wouldn't it be spectacular to see the mountains under such a shining, white mantle of snow? Where to? Lake Aloha to see the Crystal Range? Rock Creek to see Bear Creek Spire and friends? Badger Ridge to Sentinel Dome to view The Valley?

*Note that all of these locations are relatively avalanche safe. Stay relatively safe.

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[c9h13no3]

I am wondering if this is an error or am I reading it all wrong?

Clearly WD doesn't ski. It's all anyone's been talking about for a week .

To be fair, we had a bigger storm back in March of last year. Just people were dealing with idk, something about a virus. These Sierra dumps aren't too uncommon when you combine cold temps, our really tall mountains, and an atmospheric river.

Big Sur may slide into the ocean, with some areas getting a forecast of a foot of *rain*.

[oldranger]

This reminds me of February 1986. Almost all of the snow fell over a 2 week period and resulted in massive avalanches. I spent a lot of time clearing trails with chainsaw because the trail crew was stuck in Paradise Valley and Bubbs creek where trees were piled up over 14 feet high in places. Spent first 4 days with stock logging the trails between the Horse Corral and Sugarloav Meadow and trails between Sugarloaf meadow and the west boundary of the park. Maintenance folks gave me a big saw with 36" bar and there were a few trees too big to cut thru from one side. I learned a lot that year. Lots of trees down up both Cloud and Deadman canyons. My favorite campsite at the upper end of Big Wet Meadow looked like a D-9 cat had run over the place. Later that summer a Sierra Club group I met thought it was a tragedy I said i thought it was cool-- Let us know how mother nature operates over the long term. The trail crew counted the rings on one red fir they logged on the trail to East Lake--it was 500 years old. So I guess we could call it a 500 year event!