According to this week's Weather and Crop Bulletin report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a pair of late-December storm systems moved ashore in the West, delivering heavy precipitation in the Pacific Coast States and significant snow from the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to the western slopes of the Rockies.
Weekly precipitation totals in the Sierra Nevada and adjacent foothills locally totaled 4 to 12 inches or more, with an average of more than 5 inches of liquid equivalency being added to the Sierra Nevada snowpack during the final week of December.
Farther east, mostly dry weather prevailed across the nation’s mid-section, although light snow and blowing snow continued to cause rural travel disruptions across parts of the northern Plains and upper Midwest.
For the full USDA report for Jan. 4, click here.