Merced storm brings near record rain. As winter approaches, will the trend continue?
The .80 inches of rainfall in Merced on Tuesday nearly reached the record for Dec. 14 precipitation, according to National Weather Service data.
The almost an inch of heavy rain that dropped on the Merced area Tuesday alone was just shy of the 1934 record for that day, recorded at .85 inches, said Bill South, a meteorologist with the NWS’s Hanford office.
Still, total rainfall this calendar year is still 2.42 inches below normal in the Merced region, though several soggy storms since October have boosted precipitation 1.09 inches above typical October through December averages, South said.
More rainy weather is expected before the year’s end. “It was a dry January through September,” South said, but wet storms like the ones seen on Tuesday “will probably continue to the end of this calendar, and eat into the (precipitation) deficit.”
The nearest storm on forecasters’ radar was projected to drop rain in Merced County on Wednesday night and continue through Thursday morning. An expected .25-.5 inches of rain is forecast to fall by that storm’s end.
Unlike Tuesday’s weather, the storm on Wednesday and Thursday will mainly impact more northern regions of the San Joaquin Valley, South said. That means travel conditions through the Grapevine should be mild compared to the snowy roads earlier this week.
The low-elevation snowfall on Tuesday also brought about an estimated 6 inches of white flock to the Yosemite Valley and 1-3 feet to the national park’s higher elevations above 6,000 feet, South said.
Nearby Mariposa County also received 2.50 inches of rain from Tuesday’s storm.
An anticipated 4-6 more inches of snow will fall on the Yosemite Valley floor between Wednesday and Thursday, plus another foot or two above 5,000 feet.
The NWS has issued a winter storm warning for the Sierra Nevada Mountains north of Tulare County starting at 4 p.m. Wednesday through 1 p.m. Thursday, including the Yosemite Valley. The NWS cautions that snow and wind in the Sierras will make travel difficult during this period.
The storm is projected to clear in the Yosemite Valley by Thursday night, but will leave in its wake a frigid low temperature of 18 degrees.
Friday will warm up with sunshine and a high temperature of 47 degrees during the day that is projected to sink to 25 degrees that night, according to the NWS. High and low temperatures on Saturday and Sunday are forecast to be similarly mild and sunny.
Merced County’s skies are forecast to be partly sunny after the storm passes on Thursday.
Peak temperatures will likely hover just below 50 degrees through Sunday and warm to a couple degrees above that threshold on Monday and Tuesday, the NWS projects. Low temperatures are forecast in the mid 30s Thursday through Saturday, but projected to rise to 40 degrees Sunday night and continue to warm in the coming days.
