Winter Weather — West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada, California

2014-02-05 to 2014-02-06 · West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada, California

Event narrative

The first wave of Pacific storms started Wednesday evening, Feb. 5, and continued through Thursday afternoon, Feb. 6th. This wave only brought approximately 4-8 inches to the western slope of the Sierra. Majority of ski resorts and SNOTELs reported 4-6 inches above 7000ft, and Blue Canyon received approximately 4 inches at 5200ft. Local news reported a fatal accident on I-80 near Soda Springs. A woman was killed by a car spinning out of control from the wintry weather at approximately 5:40pm, which struck her and she was thrown 80-100 ft. She and her driver were standing outside on the shoulder at the time, due to their own car spinning out a short time earlier.

Wider weather episode

Three waves of Pacific atmospheric-river-type storms brought significant wet weather to California. The first wave (late Feb 5 through Feb 6) brought 1-1.5 of liquid equivalent for the Sierra, which equated to several inches of fresh snow. The second wave (early Feb 7 through early Feb 8) brought over a foot of snow to the mountains, with snow levels beginning at approximately 3500 ft on Friday morning rising to above 6500 ft by Saturday morning. The valley received 0.50-1.00 of rain and the mountains received 2-4 of liquid equivalent. The third wave (Feb 8 through Feb 10) brought 0.50-1.00 of rain for the valley and 2-4 of liquid equivalent for the Sierra, which equated to an additional 1-3 ft of snow above 6500ft.

Storm total for the entire 5-day event was 20-80 of snow over the mountains which equated to 10 to 15 of liquid for the Sierra and 5-8 of liquid for the northern mountains and coastal range. The valley received 2-4 of rain total, and the foothills received 3-5 of rain total.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 500358. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.