You are now in California and the U.S. category.

Most of the rain that reaches the ground along the Central Coast actually begins as snow high in the atmosphere where temperatures are less than 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the freezing point of water. As the snow falls, it usually encounters warmer air and melts, changing to rain. If the temperature remains below or near freezing, snow will hit the ground.

Much of California’s precious precipitation falls as snow over the Sierra Nevada. This snowpack acts as a reservoir.

The National Weather Service says the California dry spell will end with a series of storms. And, rain runoff into the Folsom Reservoir could mean releases from the Nimbus Dam, downstream into the American River.

A wind advisory starts at noon Saturday in northern California, for a storm forecast to bring heavy rain to the coast and valleys, and snow in the mountains. Wind gusts up to 50 mph are possible. In Sacramento, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is preparing to manage rain runoff into Folsom Reservoir.

 

A series of Pacific storms are lined up in the forecast for California over the next week with the potential to dump a truckload of snow on the Sierra mountains. Over the next two weeks, forecast models are suggesting the potential for more than five feet of snow across the Sierra crest — much-needed precipitation at the end of a winter that has not lived up to El Niño hype.

The weather pattern has shifted significantly since February, when record high temperatures were set across Southern California and rainfall totals were well below average.

UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, the California Department of Water Resources and non-profit organization California Trout have launched an expanded experiment to better understand how the Sacramento River system can support healthy salmon populations.

For the first time this year, the agricultural floodplain habitat experiment will compare food web productivity and fish growth in three different kinds of river habitat.

Area farmers report that any flooding of their nut and fruit orchards during the current El Niño condition would likely do more good than damage to their trees. In fact, some farmers plan to deliberately flood their orchards as part of testing the benefits of winter flooding.

By doing so, they not only ensure the trees have enough water, but they are also helping recharge the groundwater basin in winter when more water is available. California gets its bulk of rainwater from December to March. This year some storms caused brief flooding on farms.