Over the weekend, a spring storm soaked the San Francisco Bay area and caused the closure of Northern California mountain highways. Additionally, this storm set a single-day snowfall record for the season on Sunday in the Sierra Nevada. Although the wet weather had mostly departed the state by Sunday morning, officials cautioned that roads would remain slippery following approximately two feet (60 centimeters) of snow accumulation in certain Sierra areas.
"Did anyone have the snowiest day of the 2023/2024 season being in May on their winter bingo card?" asked the University of California, Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab on the social platform X.
The 26.4 inches (67 centimeters) of snowfall on Sunday exceeded the second snowiest day of the season, which occurred on March 3rd, by 2.6 inches (6.6 centimeters), according to the lab. Hazardous driving conditions on Saturday prompted the closure of several highways near Lake Tahoe, including Interstate 80 over the Donner Summit.
Flood advisories were also issued for parts of the Bay Area, where up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain fell while temperatures dropped to the low 40s (around 5 degrees Celsius), as reported by the National Weather Service. Wind gusts of up to 40 mph (64 kph) were recorded near San Francisco on Saturday. Although the storm brought light rain and gusty winds to Southern California, drier and warmer conditions were anticipated for the rest of the week.