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Bay Area snowfall on Friday?


BullCityWx

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Looks like the WFO in San Francisco has deemed it "likely" that at least some snowflakes will fly all the way to sea level on Friday with potential for significant snow in the North Bay/Napa area. The city itself hasnt seen accumulating snow in 35 years.

The NAM surface extraction shows KSJC recieving quite a heavy snowfall(by their standards):

http://68.226.77.253/text/NAMSFC/NAM_ksjc.txt

It does show no accumulating snowfall at SFO or OAK however.

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Well this would be a hoot......I grew up there and every time they say it's gonna snow down to the valley floor or down to sea level it never happens......it's so hard to get that to happen......but up at 1,000 feet not so much.....I'd be curious what Mt. Diablo in the East Bay is expected to get at the summit (3,500 feet or so).....could be a lot......I'm interested in what happened 35 years ago....I was 3 and remember playing in my backyard in Pleasanton after about 3" I think.....it was gone pretty fast...

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AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

421 PM PST THU FEB 24 2011

...COLD WINTER STORM TO IMPACT OUR AREA BEGINNING TONIGHT...

...VERY COLD TEMPERATURES EXPECTED BOTH EARLY SATURDAY MORNING AND

SUNDAY MORNING...

.DISCUSSION...AS OF 3:27 PM PST THURSDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY SKIES AND

LIGHT RAIN HAVE BEEN REPORTED ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA THIS

AFTERNOON. THE LATEST VISIBLE SATELLITE IMAGE DOES SHOW OVERCAST

CONDITIONS STREAMING INTO CENTRAL AND NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. A COLD

LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IS APPARENT APPROXIMATELY 100 MILES OFF OF THE

WASHINGTON COAST AND IS FORECAST TO MOVE SOUTH OVERNIGHT PUSHING

INTO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BY FRIDAY MORNING.

THE 1200Z ECMWF AND 1800Z OPERATIONAL GFS REMAIN IN FAIR AGREEMENT

WITH THIS SYSTEM PASSING OVER THE FORECAST AREA FRIDAY NIGHT INTO

SATURDAY MORNING. COLD AIR WILL BEGIN TO FILTER INTO THE FORECAST

AREA TONIGHT BRINGING SNOW LEVELS DOWN TO 1000 TO 1500 FEET IN THE

NORTHBAY MOUNTAINS OVERNIGHT. SNOW LEVELS ARE FORECAST TO CONTINUE TO

DROP TO 100 TO 400 OVER THE NORTH BAY TOMORROW NIGHT INTO EARLY

SATURDAY MORNING. SNOW LEVELS WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD SOUTH INTO

MONTEREY COUNTY AND POSSIBLY FALL TO SEA LEVEL SATURDAY MORNING AS

WELL.

WITH THE LOW FREEZING LEVELS SNOW WILL BECOME AN ISSUE FOR

ELEVATED AREAS AND WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES HAVE BEEN ISSUED FOR

THE NORTHBAY MOUNTAIN ZONES TONIGHT AND TOMORROW. THE COLD AIR AND

PRECIPITATION WILL SHIFT SOUTH FRIDAY BRINGING SNOW SHOWERS TO

THE SANTA CRUZ, EAST BAY MOUNTAINS AND SANTA LUCIAS BY TOMORROW

NIGHT. THEREFORE, A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY WILL COME INTO EFFECT

FOR THOSE MOUNTAIN AREAS FRIDAY AFTERNOON.

SNOW SHOWERS ARE EXPECTED TO REACH SEA LEVEL FRIDAY NIGHT AND

SATURDAY MORNING AND YES SNOW SHOWERS WILL BE A POSSIBILITY IN SAN

FRANCISCO. THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA HAS NOT RECEIVED MEASURABLE

SNOW IN QUITE SOME TIME HOWEVER THIS IS A VERY COLD AIRMASS AND A FEW

SNOW FLURRIES MAY BE EXPERIENCED IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA. TO

SUPPORT THIS STATEMENT A CROSS SECTION WAS PERFORMED FROM SONOMA TO

SOUTHERN MONTEREY COUNTY FOR THE 0600Z SATURDAY THROUGH 1200Z

SATURDAY TIME FRAME AND SOME CONDITIONAL INSTABILITY AND MAYBE EVEN

AN ARGUMENT FOR CONDITIONAL SYMMETRIC INSTABILITY CAN BE MADE FOR

THIS TIME FRAME. ALL THIS MEANS IS THAT THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR

BANDED PRECIPITATION AND SOME IF IT MAY BE IN THE FORM OF SNOW. I DO

FEEL THAT THE SOIL AND GROUND TEMPERATURE WILL BE TOO WARM IN THE

CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO TO SUPPORT SNOW ACCUMULATION BUT WE WILL SEE A

FEW FLURRIES. HOWEVER, A FEW HUNDRED FEET IN ELEVATION AND

PRECIPITATION WILL BECOME PREDOMINATELY SNOW WITH ACCUMULATIONS OF AN

INCH OR MORE POSSIBLE.

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A lot of people commute over the Bay Area Hills such as from Walnut Creek into the East Bay and from Santa Cruz into San Jose. The latter drive on CA-17 will be especially nasty since the Summit is above 1500 feet. The road is four lane but with steep grades and sharp curves. People also live well up into the hills in Eastside San Jose and along Mt. Hamilton Road and they are going to have fun as well.

Steve

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A lot of people commute over the Bay Area Hills such as from Walnut Creek into the East Bay and from Santa Cruz into San Jose. The latter drive on CA-17 will be especially nasty since the Summit is above 1500 feet. The road is four lane but with steep grades and sharp curves. People also live well up into the hills in Eastside San Jose and along Mt. Hamilton Road and they are going to have fun as well.

Steve

Since I'm from this area this will be fun to track.......I think many more areas are under the gun but those you mention, especially HWY 17, are always nailed when this happens......Walnut Creek to East Bay is confusing me unless you meant Walnut Creek to Oakland through the Caldecott......it was only confusing since Walnut Creek is in the East Bay......other places like the surrounding hills of Mt. Diablo, I-680 over Sunol Grade, HWY 4 Pittsburg to Concord, Mt. Tam, Skyline Blvd., I-280 in San Francisco could be tricky.......man I wish I was home to see this......Mt. Diablo should really look special Saturday morning......

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SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENTNATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA325 AM PST FRI FEB 25 2011

LATE TONIGHT INTO SATURDAY...LIGHTER SNOWACCUMULATIONS WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE ANTELOPE VALLEY...THESANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS AND THE INTERIOR VALLEYS OF SAN LUIS OBISPOAND SANTA BARBARA COUNTIES. THERE COULD EVEN BE SOME LIGHT SNOWSHOWERS ACROSS THE FOOTHILL AREAS WEST OF THE MOUNTAINS TONIGHT ANDSATURDAY.

THIS STORM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BRING SOME OF THE LOWEST SNOW LEVELSWE HAVE SEEN IN RECENT TIMES. WITH SUCH LOW SNOW LEVELS POSSIBLETHIS UPCOMING STORM SYSTEM COULD BE DEADLY FOR UNPREPARED MOTORISTSCAMPERS OR HIKERS.

http://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=CAZ041&warncounty=CAC037&firewxzone=CAZ241&local_place1=6+Miles+WNW+Hollywood+CA&product1=Special+Weather+Statement

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Since I'm from this area this will be fun to track.......I think many more areas are under the gun but those you mention, especially HWY 17, are always nailed when this happens......Walnut Creek to East Bay is confusing me unless you meant Walnut Creek to Oakland through the Caldecott......it was only confusing since Walnut Creek is in the East Bay......other places like the surrounding hills of Mt. Diablo, I-680 over Sunol Grade, HWY 4 Pittsburg to Concord, Mt. Tam, Skyline Blvd., I-280 in San Francisco could be tricky.......man I wish I was home to see this......Mt. Diablo should really look special Saturday morning......

I've always considered the East Bay as the bay shore up to the hills. Mt Hamilton always looks nice when it gets snow. Skyline Blvd is where I took movies of snow falling in daylight in April. In March 1982, snow fell low enough on two occasions that Travelers Advisories were issued for I-280 also had nighttme rain and snow mixed in Mountain View that time. Mt Hamilton Road was closed at the Visitors Center in Hall's Valley. I was born in San Jose and lived there until I joined the Air Force in 1962. Old enough to remember the pre freeway days of driving around there.

Steve

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Downtown Tucson had measureable snow on April 4,1999 but the airport 10 miles south of the center of town and the "official" precip site had only a Trace. Snow fell in various parts of Tucson in January 2007, February 2009, and last January and on other occasions. In reality, flakes are not that rare here occurring about once every 1-3 years mostly in Trace amounts. Downtown Phoenix now, that's a different story though outskirts like Scottsdale have seen measureable snow. Has to do with elevation which in Tucson ranges from a bit over 2000 ft MSL in the west to 2500 ft downtown and over 3000 ft east of Houghton Road.

Steve

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Snow levels got down to 400 feet in SFO which dusted the Twin Peaks and San Bruno Mountain and possibly along with the tops on Nob and Telegraph Hills. A 400 ft show level around SJC would be close to the intersection of Alum Rock Avenue and Mt. Hamilton Road-a fair number of people live above that level. It did snow in Tucson with areas above 2700 getting an inch or more while here at the house based on photos my son took we got a dusting of less than 0.5 inch.

Steve

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