Breaking News

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will boost water releases from Folsom and Nimbus dams into the American River in response to heavy rainfall delivered by Friday's storm.

Flows will ramp up slowly, starting at 8 p.m. Friday, from 1,800 cubic feet per second to 5,000 by 10 p.m.

The river level is expected to increase by about 2 feet, inundating many shoreline areas that are now exposed. People recreating along the river in the Sacramento metro area are advised to be aware and cautious of this change in water levels and flow velocities.

By Richard Chang
rchang@sacbee.com

Sierra Nevada ski resorts are celebrating the heavy snow piling up on their peaks from a series of wet winter storms sweeping across California.

Though snow levels have been mostly above 7,000 feet with these storms, that is still low enough to drop a lot of snow on the ski areas, which are eager for it after relatively sparse snow conditions last year.

"It's been snowing all day, all night," Russ Pecor, spokesman for Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe, said Friday. "We've got about a foot of new snow in the upper mountain. We could reach 18 inches by the end of the day."

Rainfall amounts just released by the National Weather Service show locations in the Northern Sierra Nevada have received the most rainfall of anywhere in California -- even more than the notoriously soggy North Coast.

The data show that the rainfall leader for the 24 hours that ended at 11 a.m. was Stirling City, small town in the foothills east of Chico. The location, which is part of the Feather River watershed, recorded 8.36 inches of rainfall in 24 hours.

Other soaked locations include Bucks Lake with 7 inches of rain, Brandy Creek with 7.2 inches, and Oak Mountain above Lake Shasta with 7.52 inches.

The city of Sacramento received 1.72" inches in the same period, recorded at Sacramento State University.

Other area locations include Auburn with 2.8 inches, Walnut Grove with 2 inches, Grass Valley with 4.3 inches and Georgetown with 3.4 inches.

The California-Nevada River Forecast Center, a branch of the National Weather Service, produced the eye-popping image below. It is a forecast of rainfall in Northern California for the next five days, ending Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, at 4 a.m.

The scale at the top is in inches. It indicates that the most intense rainfall for interior California is expected in Shasta, Tehama, Butte and Plumas counties.

The image will evolve as the forecast changes day-to-day at the link above. Shorter-duration forecasts are also available.



CAPTION: 5-day rainfall forecast for Northern California through 4 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. Scale at the top is in inches. Source: California-Nevada River Forecast Center