Snow for San Franansisco! First time in 35 Years!

That's right. San Fransisco hasn't seen snow in 35 years but that streak will likely be coming to an end beginning tonight and into Friday.

A very cold and very unusual storm will be affecting the whole west coast for the next few days. A strong storm will move from the Pacific Northwest down the west coast and bring snowfall down to sea level in areas that never see it, including San Fransisco. If you know anything about weather on the west coast, specifically winter weather, you know that snowfall has everything to do with how elevated you are.

The mountains of eastern California, Washington and Oregon typically have very heavy snowfall totals in the winter. As do mountains in Western Nevada and Arizona. But these areas are situated 1500 feet above sea level.

While this next storm will give those areas plenty of snow as well (10-20 inches), it will be so strong and so cold that snowfall levels will drop down to 500 feet and it is anticipated that in some of the heavier precipitation bands, snow will be falling at such a strong rate that it will cut right through 500 feet and leave a coating on the sea level streets of San Fransisco! That should be a sight to see.

A coating of snow is one thing, but Las Vegas, yes the same Las Vegas that regularly hits 110 degrees in the summer, will see measurable snowfall from this system, in the order of about 1-3 inches. Something tells me that the outdoor pools will be closed this weekend.

What will be even worse for some people is the cold air that settles in over all of the west after this storm. Take a look at daytime highs in southern California on Saturday. LA may struggle to hit 50! San Diego too.

Wild weather indeed is in store for the country this weekend into next week. You can expect to hear about tornado outbreaks in the deep south as well as flooding concerns closer to home. These strong storms will continue to march across the country every few days. The next one for us will be tomorrow but as you can see below, the storm track is what we call and "inside runner". Meaning it cuts up the Appalachian Valley and gives heavy wet snow to the north and very heavy rainfall to us.


This type of track will be the trend for us for the near future, with no blocking high pressure in place to the north to help steer these storms to the coast. Expect the storm from the west coast to give us more soaking rainfall on Monday/Tuesday.

Many of you may be rejoicing that at least it is only rain and not snow but I remind you that we still have a very healthy snow pack throughout the region. Adding very heavy rain on top of that can lead to severe flooding. I don't see this as a big issue for Boston since most of our snow pack has melted already but if you travel just a little north and west of the city, here is where you will find the biggest concerns for severe flooding.

For now, remember to bring an umbrella with you tomorrow! Its going to be a soaker!