Heavy Rainfall to Bring Flooding Threat to California; Heavy Snow in the Sierra

A strong atmospheric river will bring heavy rainfall to California through the holiday week. The heaviest rainfall is expected on Wednesday in the Los Angeles Basin. Flash and urban flooding is possible. A prolonged heavy snowfall is expected in the Sierra Nevada from the atmospheric river, raising concerns for major snow‐load impacts. Travel may be difficult to impossible over the passes. Read More >

Heavy Snow Event

March 6, 2008

On 6 March 2008, a convective precipitation band formed across North Texas and quickly transitioned from rain to snow in a 60 km wide zone extending from west of the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex northeast into extreme North Texas near the Red River. The snow persisted for over three hours with accumulations averaging 7 cm and isolated reports up to 30 cm near the heaviest convective precipitation. Frontogenesis and the resulting ageostrophic circulation appeared to play key roles in not only providing significant forcing for ascent but also in modifying the vertical temperature profile to be supportive of a liquid-to-frozen precipitation transition. The presence of atmospheric instability led to isolated thunderstorm development, with occasional cloud-to-ground and in-cloud lightning observed in the band of heavy snow. This study reviews the complex interactions between moisture, instability, and forcing for ascent that occurred during this convective winter weather event.

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Heavy Rainfall to Bring Flooding Threat to California; Heavy Snow in the Sierra

March 6, 2008 Snow