Atmospheric river arrives with rain

The first blast of a series of storms arrived on Tuesday with wet windy weather, but only a little flooding as dry soils and snow soaked up a lot of the water.

Minden Weather watcher Stan Kapler reported 1.33 inches of rain as of 8:40 a.m. as the rain let up for a little bit.

While not quite up to the 1.49-inch record for the day, it’s not far.

The storm came in from the south, with Fredericksburg resident Jeff Garvin reporting 2.72 inches with some minor flooding.

A gauge located a mile north of Genoa reflected a similar rainfall total as that recorded in Minden.

The southern tip of the Gardnerville Ranchos recorded a fifth of an inch while the Fish Spring Fire House recorded .06 inches.

Forecasters predicted snow levels will drop this afternoon as colder air arrives.

“Snow levels will begin to drop this afternoon and be near foothill levels tonight,” according to the forecast. “As such, expect deteriorating conditions across the Sierra passes during the afternoon with a few inches of snow possibly causing slushy roads down to lake level and some foothill locations above 5,500 feet after sundown. There will be a break in the weather Wednesday before another storm arrives Thursday through early New Years Day.”