There wasn’t a cloud in the sky here Tuesday. It’s the first time in 18 days that’s happened and only the second time in the last month and a half the city’s received 100% of its daily sun. But, incoming high clouds signal change. Another major storm is headed this way, the latest to ride off the Pacific, pound the West with flooding rains and huge mountain snows —only to jump into the Plains and Midwest where it threatens to provoke a major severe weather outbreak in sections of 13 states Thursday into Friday.
The storm swamped Santa Barbara, Calif. with 3.78” of rain Monday and Tuesday, inundating Nordhoff Ridge in the nearby Ventura County with 7.88”. At higher elevations, snowfall reached 60” at the 9,000 ft. level of Mammoth Mountain in this storm alone. This brings that site’s 2005-06 seasonal snowfall to a record breaking 619 inches—51.6 feet.
-Tom Skilling
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
