Northern California will continue to experience more rain, snow and strong winds Monday and Tuesday.
The National Weather Service is warning of possible power outages and downed trees Monday in the Sacramento region because of strong southerly winds from another winter storm system bringing more rain. Sacramento could see gusts as high as 40 mph, with 50 mph possible in the Northern Sacramento Valley. A wind advisory is in effect until 4 p.m. Monday.
"Along with the winds we'll also see some rain across the area today and it could be locally heavy for a time, especially mid to late morning into the afternoon and couple that with the winds and it could cause some issues," said Cory Mueller with the National Weather Service.
He said the Sacramento area could get up to 2 inches of rain over the next two days. Yesterday, a little more than a quarter-inch of rain fell in Sacramento as the first of two new storms began moving in.
And conditions will be even worse in the Sierra, where a blizzard warning is in effect through Wednesday morning. Extremely dangerous and near to impossible mountain travel is expected because of heavy snow and strong wind.
"They're going to see very heavy snow today and also they will see those breezy winds and that will lead to blowing snow and blizzard conditions with zero visibility and they're going to see several feet of snow over the Sierra over the next few days," Mueller said.
Highway 50 was closed briefly Monday morning from Echo Summit to Meyers for avalanche control, but as of 8:45 a.m. the road was reopened with chain controls in place. Some schools and government buildings also announced closures Monday morning.
In the foothills, snow levels could drop to around 1,000 to 2,000 feet, though not quite as low as last week's storm, which saw snow in low-elevation areas such as Red Bluff.
"We're not expecting a ton of accumulation in Albany or Placerville, but once you get to the east of that, snow totals will rise quite rapidly," Mueller said.
Forecasters are expecting sunny skies to return on Wednesday.
"We'll see a break in the precipitation and we'll see cold morning temperatures, overnight lows will be in the mid 20s to low 30s and then we're looking at additional storm systems possible for next weekend," Mueller said.
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