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First Pacific Storm Of The Season Headed To Northern California

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Wet weather is coming back to Northern California, a welcome sight for fire crews continuing to battle wildfires across the north state.

National Weather Service forecasters say widespread rain is possible starting later Thursday and continuing into Friday. Rainfall totals are not expected to be much in the valley, but the mountains could get up to 1.5 inches of rain during the storm.

Higher up the mountains, snow is expected. The snow level is expected to start above pass levels, but could start accumulating at the mountain passes early Friday morning.

Short periods of gusty winds are expected in the northern Sacramento Valley and mountain ridges come Thursday night into Friday.

Ahead of the snowy weather, Caltrans says they're closing several mountain passes. Sonora Pass (State Route 108) will be closing at 3 p.m. Thursday, Tioga Pass (State Route 120) will be closing at 5 p.m., and Ebbetts Pass (State Route 4) is closing at 8 p.m. The roads will be reopened depending on when the storm eases up.

High temperatures in the valley will be in the high 60s on Thursday and Friday, with lows in the 40s. Come the weekend into early next week, forecasters say a warming and drying trend will come.

Cal Fire spokesperson Daniel Berlant said fire crews are expected to fully contain the Sonoma County wildfire by Friday, but other large fires will take longer.

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