Monster California storm heading our way but will it bring relief to wildfires in Texas first?
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- California's biggest snowstorm of the year is underway with blizzard conditions expected to dump up to 10 feet of snow before exiting and heading east toward our region on Monday.
Roads, ski resorts and businesses are closed along the Sierra Nevada range with places like Lake Tahoe, Mammoth Lakes, Truckee, Donner and Pinewood bracing for those incredible totals.
Even Reno, Nevada on the desert floor and the San Bernadino Mountains outside of Los Angeles will see up to half-a-foot of snow.
This is the latest in a series of storms to pound California. This time it is dangerous amounts of snow instead of flooding rains.
Once the snow stops, the avalanche danger will increase with plenty of blasting across the mountaintops to prevent any slides.
The California storm will arrive in the Delaware Valley on Wednesday and Thursday. Snow lovers will be disappointed because this will be a warm storm with pockets of heavy rain.
This will be the third in a series of possibly four storms to cross Philadelphia between Saturday and next weekend.
Perhaps a bigger question about this West Coast storm is whether or not it will dip far enough south to help contain the record-breaking and deadly wildfires in the Texas Panhandle.
Drought conditions with plenty of fuel in the form of endless grasslands combined with ongoing humidity in the single digits and winds gusting up to 25 mph will continue through Monday.
Unfortunately, this California storm will not cross northern Texas and give firefighters the change in weather they desperately need. There is a chance of rain later in the week but that storm track is still uncertain.
For the latest on the Pacific coast snow, the Texas wildfires and the rain headed our way this week, stay with our NEXT Weather Team online and streaming on CBS News Philadelphia.
RELATED:
