A cool early season storm brought wintry weather which impacted travel over Sierra mountain passes. This system also brought rain across the area at lower elevations, locally heavy with thunderstorms.
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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 cool early season storm brought wintry weather which impacted travel over Sierra mountain passes. This system also brought rain across the area at lower elevations, locally heavy with thunderstorms. Thunderstorms also caused local damage to power poles from a microburst in Butte County, as well as numerous reports of small hail.
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 1, 4:46 AM PST, 1 hour 14 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Sacramento CA 446 AM PST SUN NOV 1 2015 .SYNOPSIS... Cool and wet weather starts today as a Pacific storm system moves inland. It will bring the first significant snow event of the season to the high Sierra with widespread rain elsewhere. && .DISCUSSION... Today, NorCal transitions to colder & wetter weather as a winter storm moves inland and taps into the atmospheric river. Radar imagery at 4 am showed a wide band of showers impacting the Northern CA Coastal counties that is moving eastward and nearing the Coastal range. Models all still on track with this system and have not made any major changes to this storm's forecast. Winter Storm Watch remains in effect tonight through Monday night with the brunt of the storm occurring Monday when snow levels will be notably lower (between 5000-6000 ft). Snow amounts still look to be 4-8 inches near pass levels with up to a foot across the highest peaks. Earlier runs of the HRRR showed that rain wouldn't reach the Interstate 80 corridor until around 4 pm today. However, the latest HRRR run indicates that a secondary band of rain could track into the I-80 corridor by late morning while the main band moves into far NorCal this morning. Will pass onto the day shift to monitor the arrival timing this morning. Daytime highs today will be in the mid 60s to mid 70s for the valley, 50s to mid 60s in higher terrain. Colder airmass expected after midnight tonight so much of today's precipitaton will fall as rain. .Previous Discussion...Snow levels will start around 9000 feet, then dropping down to around 5000 feet on Monday. The major question is when the snow levels will drop to 7500 feet, around the Donner Pass level on I80 and Echo Summit on Highway 50. If it takes until daybreak Monday, much of the precipitation may end up in the form of rain in those areas. High mountain peaks will likely see a foot or even more of snow. The peak snow intensity is expected Monday morning. More showery precipitation is expected by afternoon, with the potential for afternoon thunderstorms. Snow showers may drop to around 5000 feet, though accumulations to those levels are expected to be light. Showers may linger over the mountains through Tuesday into early Wednesday. A major concern is recently burned areas (past 3 years), especially on the west slope of the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains, such as the Butte Fire. The main band of precipitation could drop 1 to 3 inches on these locations. Thunderstorms developing in the afternoon could add additional locally heavy rain to this, though when and where these could be remains uncertain. People living and working in those areas should be aware of the potential for debris slides on Monday. Stayed tuned for updates to the forecast. Valley locations could see around 0.25 to 0.50 inches of rain, potentially more in convection. Drivers on Monday should be aware of slick roads, especially if wet leaves are in the area. && .EXTENDED DISCUSSION (Thursday THROUGH Sunday) Dry conditions are expected from Thursday through the end of the week with high pressure ridging over the southwest U.S. A shortwave trough passing through the Pacific Northwest to the north on Thursday will keep high temperatures down to just a little below normal. Upper ridge then amplifies along the west coast Friday and Saturday warming daytime highs to a little above normal. Extended models showing possible break down of the upper ridge by the end of the extended period as next upper trough is forecast to start pushing into the Pacific Northwest. Northern forecast area could see some precipitation by next Sunday while the rest of the forecast area remains dry with near normal daytime temperatures. && .AVIATION... Frontal band sagging southward into Norcal this morning. VFR Tafs sites this morning becoming MVFR northern Sacramento valley after 18z and then MVFR southern Sacramento and Northern San Joaquin after about 21z under clouds and occasional showers. Southerly winds to 15 knots except higher over Sierra ridges. && .STO Watches/Warnings/Advisories... Winter Storm Watch from this evening through Monday evening for West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada. &&
The Sacramento radar (KDAX), 30 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:01 UTC.
1 winter weather, 1 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
There were 4 to 5 inches of snow measured at Donner Pass (Castle Peak area). This caused traffic slowdowns and chain restrictions at elevations above 6000 feet.
Hail covered 80% of the ground and was up to 2 to 3 inches deep in some locations.
A collapsing thunderstorm resulted in a downburst which brought strong straight line winds which snapped 6 power poles along east Eaton Rd. and Godman Ave in Chico. There were 10000 PG&E customers without power.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2015Every state in 2015This day in weather historyWarnings in California, November 2015
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: 607388, 607384, 607386.