Carson City area weather: Sierra snow, valley rain through Tuesday
A series of wet winter storms will impact the Sierra and Carson City region this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend through at least Tuesday with the potential of several feet of snow in the mountains and up to a half inch of rain in the valleys, according to the National Weather Service.
In Carson City, rain will develop overnight tonight with breezy conditions and showers into Saturday morning, then becoming partly cloudy into Sunday with the next system moving in by Sunday night that will bring rain through at least Tuesday.
“It will be a fairly wet storm system,” said Jon Mittelstadt, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Reno.
Worth noting is the possibility of a slider system early Saturday morning that could bring snow to the valley floor overnight, much like the one that happened early Friday morning that brought 3 inches around parts of Reno and nearly a foot in the Virginia City Highlands, said Mittelstadt. Gusty winds could also develop in Western Nevada and along Highway 395 tonight into early Saturday morning.
The main surge of wet weather that forecasters call an “atmospheric river” will be an ongoing event Sunday night through Tuesday. It will be directed into northeast California Sunday afternoon and then drift southward into the Lake Tahoe region by Sunday night and then down into the valleys.
The system is warm and subtropical in nature which means higher elevation snow levels, generally above around 7,000 feet before edging down to near lake level.
How much valley rain and mountain snow remains undetermined. Snow amounts could range anywhere from 2 feet to several feet in the mountains and a quarter to a half inch of rain possible for the valleys. By the time the system moves east Tuesday, air temperatures could be cold enough for snow to the valley floors, according to the weather service.