Nearly 4 inches of rain has fallen on the Hill since Thursday. Saturday morning, March 1, the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for several Southern California areas, including the Riverside County mountains. The warning is currently in effect until 3 a.m. Sunday, March 2.
Saunders Meadow Road at its intersection with Highway 243 was covered in rain runoff, Friday afternoon, Feb. 28. Photo by Jenny Kirchner[/caption]
Currently an inch or more of snow has fallen in Pine Cove and Fern Valley. Visible snow is on the ground on N. Circle Drive at the intersection with Pine Crest Ave (Fern Valley Corners).
The NWS is predicting that snow levels, which are near 6,000 feet now, will drop to between 5,000 and 5,500 feet this afternoon through late tonight. The forecast is that the showers will gradually taper off on Sunday.
The snow accumulations will be an additional 10 to 20 inches above 6,500 feet and 2 to 3 feet above 7,500 feet.
Since Thursday morning, Keenwild Ranger Station has recorded 3.9 inches of rain. Nearly .80 has been since midnight Saturday morning. The total rain recorded at Keenwild since July 1 is 11.42 inches, which is only 60 percent of the long-term average (18.7 inches) for Idyllwild from July 1 through Feb. 28.
Idyllwild is still about 40 percent below the normal 18.7 inches of rain through February. After Sunday, no other storms are in the forecast in the next week. Accuweather.com doesn’t forecast another potential storm event for three weeks.
