LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — After a rainy start to the week, the National Weather Service has updated its forecast to predict the potential not just for more rain but also for snow in Lake County, which could make for an early white Christmas.
Forecasters issued a winter weather advisory that notes dropping snow levels that are expected overnight and into Tuesday, with minor snowfall accumulations as low as 1,000 feet by Tuesday morning.
That weather is expected to include the highway summits through Mendocino and Lake County, and moderate to heavy snow accumulations for elevations as low 1,500 to 2,000 feet on
Wednesday.
During the day on Monday there was rainfall that ranged from under an inch near Lower Lake to more than 2 inches in Middletown. Combined with Sunday’s precipitation, the National Weather Service’s observation stations reported top rainfall amounts at nearly 3 inches in Bartlett Springs and Hidden Valley Lake, with more than 3 inches in Whispering Pines.
The rain is slowly raising Clear Lake’s level, which was at -1.27 feet Rumsey, the special measure just for the lake, just before 1 a.m. on Tuesday, an improvement of about a tenth of a foot since the previous day.
Monday’s wet conditions led to numerous reports of roadway hazards around Lake County, from downed trees on Bottle Rock Road and Wight Way in Kelseyville and Seigler Canyon Road in Lower Lake, mud and rocks in the roadway on Highway 175 in Whispering Pines, as well as noninjury car crashes, the California Highway Patrol reported.
More rain plus snow could fall across Lake County on Tuesday and Wednesday, when the National Weather Service says another storm system will move over the area, potentially bringing more snow in lower elevations.
The forecast models show chilly weather into the weekend, when there is the potential for another storm system to arrive and impact Lake County into next week.
Daytime temperatures will range from the mid-40s to low 50s, while nighttime conditions are expected to drop into the low 30s, bringing nighttime freezes.
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