Richgrove, California

... A pair of storms to affect the central California interior this
week...

A pair of Pacific storms will move through central California
interior this week... bringing cooler temperatures... breezy
conditions and a chance for rain and mountain snow.

The first storm is the weaker of the two... and will quickly move
through the region Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Rainfall
amounts will be light... but the central San Joaquin Valley could
see one or two hundredths of an inch as far south as Fresno
Wednesday morning. The snow level will fall to around 6000
feet... with up to an inch of snow possible over the high country
of Yosemite National Park.

The second... and significantly stronger... storm will reach the
the Yosemite area late Thursday night... then linger over the
central California interior through Friday night and possibly
into Saturday morning. This will be a colder system... and snow
level will fall to around 4500 to 5000 feet near Yosemite by
Friday evening. Snow levels will be higher to the south... rising
to around 6000 feet over the Tehachapi Mountains. At this
time... the Grapevine and the Tehachapi and Walker passes are
expected to be below the snow line.

Rainfall amounts with this storm are uncertain at this time... but
the valley floor could see as much as a quarter inch storm total of
rain... with between a half inch and an inch of rain over the
southern Sierra Nevada... and up to a tenth of an inch of rain over
the Tehachapi Mountains. Above 5000 feet... new snow totals for the
southern Sierra Nevada from Yosemite to Kings Canyon could reach 6
to 8 inches by Saturday morning. The Tulare County mountains could
see a total of 3 to 6 inches of new snow above 6000 feet... with
only an inch or two of new snow for the Kern County mountains
above 6000 feet.

This storm also will bring gusty winds to the Sierra high country
and through and below the passes of the Kern County mountains
Friday and Friday night as the cold front moves through.

Listen to NOAA Weather Radio... or your favorite news source... for
updates on this situation.