Winter storm watch issued for Sierra Nevada. Here’s when Fresno can expect heavy rain

Hanford’s National Weather Service station has had a busy couple of days.

On Friday, it issued a freeze warning for San Joaquin Valley, where a dry air mass is bringing temperatures expected to drop as low as 28 degrees overnight. This puts put crops, other sensitive vegetation and unprotected outdoor plumbing at risk.

The warning is good through 9 a.m. Saturday.

At the same time, the weather service is watching for a series of storm systems expected to dip into the area. The first will move down from the Gulf of Alaska on Sunday bringing with it “periods of moderate to heavy rain in the valley, with high snowfall rates in the mountains,” late Monday through Tuesday.

Forecast totals through Tuesday are 1.25 to 2.25 inches in the Valley north of Kern County with a chance of hail and thunderstorms as the storms leaves the region. Already, a winter storm watch has been called for the Sierra Nevada, which could see one to four feet of snow above 5,000 feet.

Six to eight feet could be possible for elevations above 8,000 feet.

A second, less-powerful storm is expected to roll through the region later in the week, according to the weather service.

This all comes on the heels of Thursday’s rain event, which dumped .41 inches of rain in Fresno. For contrast, the city tallied just .3 inches of rain for the entire month of November and is at 6.74 inches for the year, some five inches below the yearly norm.

Up at Huntington Lake, China Peak Mountain Resort received eight inches of snow through Thursday and hoped to at least partially open for the weekend. On Friday, it announced on social media it has pushed its opening day to Dec. 17.

This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 1:53 PM.