Winter Storm — Mountains Southwest Shasta County To Northern Lake County, California

2012-12-20 to 2012-12-23 · Mountains Southwest Shasta County To Northern Lake County, California

Event narrative

A series of waves passed through Northern California bringing moderate to heavy snowfall, with some breaks between snowfall amounts. Snowfall began approximately mid-day on December 20th, and continued through the evening December 23th. Snow levels rose to above 2500 ft on December 22nd, and above 3500 feet December 23rd. Alder springs, elevation 4555 ft, reported approximately 20-22 inches of snowfall during this time.

Wider weather episode

A series of pacific storms tracked across Northern California Thursday through the weekend bringing periods of moderate to heavy snow in the mountains and gusty winds. Low snow levels brought snow as low as 500 ft before snow levels rose to 3000 to 4500 ft by the weekend. Significant rainfall was brought to the lower elevations. Winds gusted up to 40-55 mph in the Northern, Central, and Southern Sacramento Valley, as well as the northeast foothills and northern Sierra Mountains, on December 23rd. These winds caused an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 power outages, and also resulted in downed trees and tree branches. Power outages were located near the Redding vicinity, mountain valleys such as Quincy and Chester, near the Chico/Paradise/Oroville area, and also the Sacramento metropolitan. Two fatalities occurred with this episode: one fatality due to a fallen tree, and one fatality due to an avalanche.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 424837. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.