Snow Totals in California: The Last Storm and the Season So Far

The list near the top of this page reads the National Weather Service's Local Storm Reports for California from the last 7 days, the biggest first, with the reporter and the time. For your own address, enter a ZIP code in the tool.

It depends on where you are. On the 1991-2020 normals, Grant Grove gets 186 inches, Tahoe City gets 179 inches, Sacramento gets 0 inches and Fresno gets 0 inches a season. The median across 278 California weather stations with a normal is 0 inches.

Among the reference stations here, Tahoe City holds the record: 535 inches in 1951-52. Seasons run July 1 to June 30, and only seasons with nearly complete records count.

Tahoe City recorded 42 inches on January 15, 1952, the biggest single day at the reference stations on this page. The table lists each station’s own.

Of the stations on this page, Grant Grove, at 6,580 feet, has the highest normal, 186 inches a season.

Enter a ZIP code in the tool. It finds the nearest long record weather station and compares its snowfall since July 1 with the 1991-2020 normal to the same date, and shows last season’s total against a normal season.

Observers measure new snow on a flat board painted white, set out in an open spot away from trees, roofs and drifts, so the snow lands where wind has not rearranged it. The board is read at least every six hours during a storm, because snow settles under its own weight and melts from the bottom. A single reading at the end of a long storm runs low. After each reading the board is swept clean, and the storm total is the sum of the readings. Depth on the ground is a different number: it holds older snow and has settled.