Hey Hey Giovanni here! Your weatherguy. A relatively quiet week ended with a huge bang as three waves of moisture slammed the west coast. Daytime highs were in the upper 60s last Tuesday with partly cloudy skies as the jet stream slowly shifted south. By Thursday, we were cooler with a few showers just to our north as the strongest El Niño event of the season was developing offshore. By Friday evening the rain was falling heavy, but the snow levels remained well above pass level. The second system and the wettest took direct aim at NorCal with gusty winds, heavy rain and finally snow down to 4000ft after midnight. Up to 2ft of of snow fell above 7000ft along the norther Sierra, but Mammoth Lakes along the Eastern Sierra picked up over 4½ft of snow just last night, with chains required on all vehicles no exceptions.

Rain amounts since Friday have ranged from 5" in Nevada City to almost 10" in some of the up slope areas. Power outages have been sporadic and mainly outside of town and thankfully flood damage has been not been widespread. More rain and snow are likely this afternoon and evening as a colder storm is right along the coast soon spreading rain inland.

Weekly Forecast: The coming week will start wet as today's storm is likely to keep us wet through at least the morning hours before clearing out Monday afternoon. A warming clearing trend will continue through Tuesday before the next round of wet weather returns on Tuesday night remaining unsettled through next weekend. These next few storms look colder and will help rebuild the snow pack to above average levels, but none of the incoming storms look as wet as this past weekend's deluge.

*Statewide Sierra snow pack is at around 79% of normal for this date!

Weekly Rain and Snow for Nevada City

Rainfall so far Today
0.38"

Rainfall This Week
5.00"

Rainfall This Month
5.00"

Rain in Nevada City since July 1st 2015
36.20"

Snowfall in Nevada City so far this season
1"

El Niño update: Well you don't need any fancy explanation this week to figure out that El Niño hit us hard this. Even the weekly Pacific Ocean temps were a bit warmer from last week in response to the massive explosion of deep moisture and storminess across the entire Pacific Ocean basin. This wet pattern has the potential of remaining with us through the next couple of weeks, but early April is looking like we may begin to dry out as the seasons change and High pressure begins to shift the jet stream north.

 

EL Niño impacts: Climatologists still say we are experiencing of one the strongest El Niños on record. During strong El Niños, the subtropical jet stream that brings wet storms to southern Mexico and Central America moves northward, creating a constant flow of storms over Southern California. Only exceptionally strong El Niños are powerful enough to shift the entire jet stream to cover Northern California, giving the southern California double its rainfall and Northern California double the Sierra snowpack if not more, Those severe El Niños last hit in 1982-83 and 1997-98.

The latest weekly El Niño indices are listed below. El Niño is HERE! Conditions are present and it will last into early spring 2016.

Current Pacific Ocean Temps Above Normal

Niñ0 4 region
+1.4°C

Niño 3.4 region
+2.1°C

Niño 3 region
+1.8°C

Niño 1+2 regions
+0.9°C

February - April Precipitation and Temperature Outlook: WET AND MILD TO CONTINUE!

My BloomSky this afternoon as the next storm approaches the coast!

Huge improvements continue overall in most areas from just last fall, but we need more snow.

The next storm is already spreading rain along the coast!

The jet stream will keep us wet and unsettled through the week.

Forecast models look wet today and Monday morning.

The precipitation outlook map for the coming week is looking wet again all the way down the California coast.

Have a great week and make sure to follow my daily Nevada County Weather updates on Fac