Mother Nature looks to be making good on her promise of a series of sorely needed storms starting early Thursday.
The Valley could get as much as an inch and a half of rain through Saturday, the National Weather Service says. Rain could continue into next week in amounts that cannot yet be predicted, meteorologist Drew Peterson said.
It would be the first substantial rain and Sierra Nevada snow since early December. "It's a series of moderately strong systems, nothing too irregular about them," he said.
The storms likely will not be enough to make up for the dry start to winter, but they are welcome nonetheless.
Reservoir storage from last year's big snowpack will help farms and cities get by if this year ends up below average.
But farmers in the San Joaquin Valley need soil moisture now to grow feed crops and get nut and fruit trees ready for blooming.
The Dodge Ridge ski area is monitoring the weather in the hope that it finally can open. The first storm is expected to bring snow as low as 6,000 feet, which includes all of Dodge's terrain.
The snowpack in the central Sierra Nevada is less than 10 percent of average for mid-January, the California Department of Water Resources reported.
The expected snow prompted the California Department of Transportation to close Highway 108 about seven miles east of Strawberry as of noon today. Caltrans also closed Highway 4 half a mile east of the Mount Reba turnoff at the same time.
Officials on Tuesday night also closed Highway 120, Tioga Pass, in Yosemite National Park because of the possibility of heavy snow. There is a possibility Glacier Point Road will be closed after today after park officials assess road and weather conditions.
All three mountain passes typically close for the winter by mid-November.
The dry weather has been blamed mainly on La Niña, a cooling of water in the eastern Pacific Ocean that tends to force the storm-bearing jet stream to the north of California.
Meteorologists in recent weeks saw signs that La Niña could ease by mid-January, and this week's forecast has firmed up that trend.
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MercedSunStar.com weather forecast 
