English: California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains got their first serious preview of winter as an autumn storm dumped widespread snow in the higher elevations on November 5-6, 2023. On the morning of November 6, the “winter storm conditions” caused Tioga Pass to be closed eastbound of State Route 120 to traffic at Crane Flat Road inside Yosemite National Park. Caltrans also temporarily closed State Route 108 (Sonora Pass) at Kennedy Meadows due to storm conditions. Both passes have since been reopened.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a false-color image centered on the Sierra Nevada Mountains on November 9.

In this type of image, visible and infrared light (Bands 7,2,1) are combined to help separate snow (bright electric blue) from clouds (white or lightly tinted blue), vegetation (bright green), open land (tan or brown), and water (dark blue). A wide swath of snow stretches from Lake Tahoe, which straddles California and Nevada, to salt-encrusted Owens Lake in southern California.

According to the National Weather Service Sacramento, California, a strong storm system is expected to bring heavy mountain snow and widespread Valley rain beginning next week. A post on their Facebook page states, “Confidence is high for this being an impactful event, however, exact timing and total accumulations are still uncertain this far out.”