In Like a Lion, We Hope

Bay Area weather forecasters expect March to come in like a lion: [bold added]

Sacramentans are grappling with graupel

Winter’s biggest storm to date will touch down Wednesday in what forecasters expect to be a three-day assault on Northern California.

“This is a once-a-winter kind of event,” said Zach Tolby, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno.

Rain is coming to the Bay Area and heavy snowfall should pound the Sierra, which is welcome news following an unusually long dry spell up until this week. Parts of the Sierra got a foot or more of snow from Sunday to Monday, while other inland areas, including Sacramento, experienced the phenomenon known as graupel — a kind of soft hail that forms when supercooled water droplets freeze on falling snowflakes.

The weather service issued a winter storm warning for Northern California’s foothills and mountains starting at 4 p.m. Wednesday and lasting until 10 a.m. Saturday. The warning, which had previously been issued for 10 p.m., noted that “travel will be very difficult to impossible.”

Worries about another drought outweigh fears of flooding in Californians' minds, so storms are welcome. Those of us who have replanted our lawns know which way we want the wind to blow.