The big deal this weekend is not the storm that may or may not hit New England;it's the one coming into the West Coast. This very strong system will behurling big blobs of moisture into California.One can also look at this as a series of individual storms. Either way, it'sgoing to be bad. Coastal California and the interior valleys will be poured on,and flooding and mudslides will occur.
In the Sierra Nevada mountains snow is already coming down in amazingquantities, up to 3 inches per hour. The snow level is currently at 6,500 feet,and that's about where it will stay through the weekend.
The snow that can fall in these mountains can make most Eastern storms lookfeeble in comparison. A foot of snowfall in the East is a big deal. In theWestern mountains, however, that much snow is often just the tip of theiceberg.
This weekend (Friday night included), a total of 3 to 6 feet of snow willaccumulate in the Sierra Nevada. That's why they need those big rotarysnowplows. And it doesn't end there. The storm train will continue to dumpheavy snow on the mountains through the first part of next week.
Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.
