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AccuWeather Meteorologist and Social Media Manager Jesse Ferrell covers extreme weather and the intersection of meteorology and social media.
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Weather Blogs / WeatherMatrix
Snow totaling 10 feet to follow 137-mph winds in California
Published Jan 23, 2021 7:27 PM EDT
UPDATE 2/2/2021: Here's the "greatest hits" of what happened:
Pacific Pounding Jan. 25-29, 2021
ORIGINAL BLOG 1/23/2021: This has been a really crazy "week in weather" in the United States. Damaging winds were clocked to 137 mph* in California, almost 16 inches of rain fell in Hawaii (with winds up to 60 mph) and over 30 inches of lake-effect snow fell in New England.
Week in weather Jan. 17 to Jan. 23, 2021
Next week, as much as 10 feet of snow will fall in four days in the California mountains according to our newest graphic:
AccuWeather forecast snowfall Jan. 27 to Jan. 29, 2020
Over the next 10 days, the GFS model is predicting as much as 380 inches (32 feet) of snow in the same areas, according to one map that I can't show to you due to competitive reasons. The map below was the runner up, predicting 339 inches (28 feet) in 16 days:
GFS forecast snowfall over the next 16 days
That's probably an overestimate, and of course, not that much snow will be on the ground at one time due to compaction, and no human would be able to measure it on the highest ridges, but the point is, the California drought is about to take a "good kick in the pants."
*The winds in California also gusted to 188 mph at Kirkwood Mountain Summit. The data looked sound to me, but the National Weather Service said last February, they didn't believe the sensor at that facility was operating properly, and they did not respond to a request this week for an update. At Ward Mountain, which holds the state record of 199 mph set in 2017, the winds "only" gusted to 137 mph.