First Significant Snow to Arrive in the Sierra This Week

Updated 1:55 p.m. Tuesday

The National Weather Service is forecasting the first significant snow of the season later this week in the Sierra Nevada — with a pair of storms expected for the region starting Wednesday morning.

The Weather Service’s Reno office on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains forecasts a “rather strong low-pressure system with an accompanying cold front” moving between Wednesday and Thursday that will first bring a dusting of snow to areas above 8,000 feet in the Sierra. As much as 3 inches of snow is forecast to fall in areas above 7,000 feet.

Depending on the storm’s precipitation rates, and how long it lasts through Wednesday afternoon, the Weather Service’s Reno office says that there’s “a likely chance” that snow levels could drop about 1,000 feet lower — and that if this happens, valley floors in that region could see snow as well by late Wednesday evening.

This weather will also bring high winds, with gusts up to 45 miles per hour, possibly impacting roads. On high Sierra ridges, the Weather Service warns that gusts of up to 80 miles per hour are possible.

Friday will bring a “short dry-out period” before a second storm potentially arrives over the weekend, say forecasters, with the next cold front arriving Friday night into Saturday morning. The Reno office says the air mass “looks cold enough for snow levels down near most valley floors.”

The Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, UC Berkeley’s research field station located at Donner Pass, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that this week’s flakes would represent the season’s “first measurable snow” — defined previously by the lab as “0.5 cm (~0.2”) of snowfall” or more.

This upcoming storm isn’t quite the first snow to grace the Sierra this season, as previous showers brought a little snow to the highest peaks during the last weekend of September.

On Oct. 12, the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory reported its first “light dusting of snow” on the Donner Pass — which the lab clarified “doesn’t officially count as our first day of snowfall, which requires a measurable amount of accumulation.”