Cold storm could bring snow to Carson

A cold, windy storm barreled into Carson City early this morning bringing the chance of snow to valley floors.

A winter storm watch was in effect until 9 a.m. today for the greater Lake Tahoe area and until noon south in Mono County, according to the National Weather Service.

Meteorologist Larry Osterman said Carson residents may see snow accumulations of up to 1-2 inches, mainly above 5,000 feet, during the morning hours.

Snow levels should drop to the valley floors during the day today, as the storm brings 20-30 mph winds.

Up to 5 inches of snow is expected to fall above 5,000 feet and as much as 10 inches of snow above 7,000 feet were expected by daybreak. Similar amounts of snow are expected to fall during the day, Osterman said.

This storm won't have as much moisture associated with it as the one that filled Lake Tahoe to its rim over the weekend.

But Osterman said that the colder storm could produce locally heavy snow.

High temperatures in the valleys today will be between 39 and 49 degrees as the storm moves off to the east this afternoon. There will be a short break then about midnight, another low-pressure system could bring additional snowfall tonight and into Thursday morning.

Last weekend's storm dropped 1.37 inches of precipitation in the Tahoe basin, according to Gary Barbato, hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Reno.

"I think it's going to keep going up a bit," he said. "I think there is going to continue to be some inflows as long as it stays above freezing and we have some melt."

Tahoe first dipped below its rim at the end of last month. Its level was 0.14 of an inch below the rim before the storm last weekend.

Water stored above 6,223 feet is included in controlled water releases by the federal water master in Reno to feed the Truckee River.