The first, warmer storm system will unfold Wednesday into Thursday, keeping snow to the highest elevations. Then, a much colder and more significant weekend storm could deliver snow closer to sea level in places like Washington and Oregon.
That would bring a chance of a white Christmas to cities like Seattle and Portland, where the climatological odds of such romantic — or irritating, depending on your perspective — holiday weather is just 1% to 3%.
Meantime in the Sierra Nevada mountains, isolated snow could pile high enough to reach the second story of a building — up to 10 feet, according to meteorologists at the Sacramento National Weather Service office. Most people in the Sierra Nevadas will more likely see 5 to 8 feet of snow, making road conditions hazardous across the region.
“Travel across the Sierra will be difficult to impossible at times through the holiday weekend,”…
