A winter storm moved quickly across Northern California, bringing snow down to 4000 feet and a foot or more of snow to the Sierra Nevada passes.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS STO wrote it up.
A winter storm moved quickly across Northern California, bringing snow down to 4000 feet and a foot or more of snow to the Sierra Nevada passes.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Sacramento, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Nov 5, 2:43 PM PST, 1 hour 17 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA 343 PM PDT SAT NOV 5 2011 .SHORT TERM DISCUSSION... COLD FRONTAL SYSTEM IS NOW APPROACHING NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. MID TO HIGH CLOUDS ARE BLANKETING THE STATE...AND FLURRIES HAVE BEEN REPORTED ALONG THE MOUNTAINS FOR MUCH OF THE DAY. THE MAIN FRONTAL BAND REMAINS ALONG THE COAST...AND AS OF THIS WRITING IS APPROACHING THE COASTAL RANGES. TEMPERATURES ARE IN THE 50S ACROSS THE CENTRAL VALLEY...WITH 40S ALONG THE FOOTHILLS AND 20S AND 30S OVER THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS. COLD FRONT WILL SWEEP THROUGH THE AREA THIS EVENING AND TONIGHT. THIS SYSTEM IS MOVING RATHER QUICKLY...SO FOR VALLEY LOCATIONS WE'LL PROBABLY SEE ONLY A FEW HOURS OF LIGHT TO MODERATE RAIN. OROGRAPHICS AND UPPER LEVEL SUPPORT FOR PRECIPITATION IS A BIT WEAKER THAN LAST THURSDAY'S STORM...BUT THIS SHOULD BE OFFSET BY A STRONGER SURFACE COLD FRONT AND A NOMINALLY BETTER MOISTURE TAP. GENERALLY EXPECT VALLEY PRECIPITATION TOTALS UP TO AROUND HALF AN INCH. SNOW LEVELS WILL START POTENTIALLY BELOW 3000 FEET ALONG THE SHASTA-TRINITY ALPS TO 3500-4000 FT ALONG THE NORTHERN SIERRA. SNOW LEVELS COULD DROP TO AROUND 2000 FT IN SHASTA COUNTY LATE TONIGHT...AND AROUND 3000 FT ALONG THE SIERRA. LOOK FOR SNOW TOTALS OF 10 TO 15 INCHES AT THE HIGHEST ELEVATIONS...AND GREATER THAN 4 INCHES ABOVE 4000 FEET. A SECONDARY WAVE ON THE BACKSIDE OF THE FIRST SYSTEM MAY BRING ANOTHER ROUND OF SHOWERS TO VALLEY LOCATIONS SUNDAY. OTHERWISE SHOWERS SHOULD CONTINUE OVER THE SIERRA BUT OVERALL IMPACTS SHOULD LESSEN TOMORROW. SHOWERS WILL BE ON THE DECREASE LATE SUNDAY. WITH CLEARING SKIES AND LIGHT WINDS EXPECTED...WE COULD SEE PATCHY FOG DEVELOP IN THE VALLEY MONDAY MORNING. FAIR WEATHER IS EXPECTED THROUGH MIDWEEK AS HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS INTO THE REGION. DANG .EXTENDED DISCUSSION (WEDNESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY) GREATER THAN NORMAL UNCERTAINTY EXISTS FOR LATER THIS WEEK...BUT THE MEDIUM RANGE MODELS ARE SHOWING SIGNS OF BETTER AGREEMENT. AN UPPER LEVEL LOW IS EXPECTED TO EVENTUALLY FORM A DEEP CLOSED LOW OFF THE CALIFORNIA COAST BY THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK. THE BIGGEST QUESTION IS WHEN THIS SYSTEM SHIFTS INLAND. BOTH THE ECMWF AND GFS HAVE BEEN TRENDING SLOWER WITH THIS SYSTEM...AND NOW MORE FOCUSED ON A SATURDAY TO SUNDAY PRECIPITATION EVENT. WOULD LIKELY TO SEE MORE CONTINUITY IN THIS SOLUTION...BUT FOR NOW HAVE LARGELY KEPT A PERSISTENCE FORECAST OF GREATER THAN CLIMO CHANCES FOR UNSETTLED WEATHER. DANG && .AVIATION... INCOMING COLD FRONT WILL LOWER CIGS AND SPREAD PRECIPITATION ACROSS OUR ENTIRE CWA THIS EVENING INTO TOMORROW. VLY TAF SITES ARE CURRENTLY VFR WITH CIGS NEAR BKN/OVC065 BUT ARE EXPECTED TO HAVE MVFR CIGS AND VSBYS FOR MOST OF THE NIGHT THRU EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. MVFR/IFR CIGS AND VSBYS EXPECTED ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS TONIGHT WITH KBLU CURRENTLY MVFR WITH -SN. SNOW LEVEL WILL LOWER TO AROUND 3000-4000 FT WITH LCLY LOWER LEVELS AROUND 2500 FT IN SHASTA COUNTY. VLY SFC WINDS WILL GENERALLY BE SLY BETWEEN 7-15 KTS WITH OCCASIONAL MDT GUSTS UP TO 20 KTS. VLY WINDS WILL BECOME LIGHTER AFT 06Z. MTN GUSTS UP TO 40 KTS TONIGHT AND SHOULD LIGHTEN AFT 12Z. JBB && .STO WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WINTER STORM WARNING UNTIL 10 AM PST SUNDAY ABOVE 4000 FEET FOR THE WEST SLOPE NORTHERN SIERRA NEVADA...WESTERN PLUMAS COUNTY/LASSEN PARK. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 4 AM PST SUNDAY ABOVE 4000 FEET FOR THE MOUNTAINS SOUTHWESTERN SHASTA COUNTY TO NORTHERN LAKE COUNTY. &&
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA 700 AM PDT SAT NOV 5 2011 CAZ013>019-063-064-066>069-061400- SHASTA LAKE AREA/NORTHERN SHASTA COUNTY- BURNEY BASIN/EASTERN SHASTA COUNTY-NORTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY- CENTRAL SACRAMENTO VALLEY-SOUTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY- CARQUINEZ STRAIT AND DELTA-NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY- MOUNTAINS SOUTHWESTERN SHASTA TO NORTHERN LAKE COUNTIES- CLEAR LAKE/SOUTHERN LAKE COUNTY-MOTHERLODE- EAST FOOTHILLS/NORTH SACRAMENTO VALLEY- WESTERN PLUMAS COUNTY/LASSEN PARK-WEST SLOPE NORTHERN SIERRA NEVADA- 700 AM PDT SAT NOV 5 2011 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR INTERIOR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. .DAY ONE...TODAY ANOTHER COLD PACIFIC STORM IMPACTS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT WITH MORE ACCUMULATING SNOW OVER THE COASTAL RANGE AND SIERRA NEVADA. SNOW LEVELS WILL LOWER TO AROUND 3000 FEET TODAY BUT MOST OF THE SNOW ACCUMULATION WILL BE ABOVE 4000 FEET ACROSS THE COASTAL RANGE AND ABOVE 6000 FEET ACROSS THE SIERRA NEVADA. * WINTER STORM WARNING.......SEE WWUS46 KSTO - WSWSTO FOR DETAILS * * WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY....SEE WWUS46 KSTO - WSWSTO FOR DETAILS * .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY THE SAME PACIFIC STORM WILL LINGER INTO SUNDAY WITH SNOW STILL ACCUMULATING ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. * WINTER STORM WARNING.......SEE WWUS46 KSTO - WSWSTO FOR DETAILS * .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS TO THEIR LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE. THE LATEST WEATHER INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET AT (LOWER CASE): HTTP://WWW.WRH.NOAA.GOV/STO JCLAPP
2 winter storm. Local standard time, as filed.
Periods of heavy snow fell above 4000 feet and resulted in up to a foot of snow near 6000 feet and more than a foot of snow at the highest elevations. Nine inches of snow fell over the Yuba Pass. Locally gusty winds resulted in poor visibilities in some areas but mostly at the pass level.
Periods of heavy snow fell above 4000 feet and resulted in up to a foot of snow falling near 6000 feet and more than a foot of snow at the highest elevations. Eleven inches of snow fell at Kingvale on Interstate 80 and eight inches of snow fell over Echo Summit. Locally gusty winds resulted in poor visibilities in some areas but mostly at the pass level.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2011Every state in 2011This day in weather historyWarnings in California, November 2011
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 352958, 352959.