Major Spring Storm Moves Through West Into Plains

(April 20) -- If April showers bring May flowers as the common adage states, then what would April snow, rain, wind, hail and thunderstorms bring -- especially if it all comes with one storm?

A powerful spring storm will bring this wide variety of weather this week, with possible travel delays in the West today and Wednesday and the risk of strong thunderstorms in the Plains by Thursday.

The most intense weather along the West Coast will occur in California, where it's getting late in the season for precipitation-bearing storms. Heavy snow -- one to two feet -- will fall in the Sierra from today through Wednesday, accompanied by a wind that could gust to 50 mph. Snow showers might occur in the mountains of Southern California.

Snow will fall at lower elevations from tonight through Wednesday as chilly air filters in, resulting in difficult travel, including in foothill and lower-mountain locations that don't usually receive snow in April.

Showers and thunderstorms will occur in lower-elevation locations of the state. The atmosphere will be unstable and cold enough for the thunderstorms to be accompanied by small hail, perhaps enough to cover the ground. The storm will bring a winter-like chill as well. High temperatures on Wednesday will be in the 50s in the Central Valley and even much of the Los Angeles basin, where high temperatures on Monday touched 80 degrees in many locations.

Even though storms during the course of the winter brought California enough rain and mountain snow to largely eradicate the long-term drought, the added rain and mountain snow will better prepare the region for the inevitably long, dry summer that's quickly approaching.

The rain and snow in the West might be more reminiscent of a winter storm than a spring storm, but it will certainly be a spring storm in terms of the potential for dangerous thunderstorm development in the Plains by the time the storm arrives Thursday.

The storm itself will certainly be strong enough to produce dangerous thunderstorms, but early indications are that the air in advance of the storm might not be warm or humid enough to produce a widespread outbreak of tornadoes. If that ends up being the case, it will continue a fortunate trend so far this year. U.S. tornado numbers have been much lower than normal in 2010. Only 15 tornadoes having been reported so far this month, compared with a monthly total of 226 last April.

While the threat of Plains' thunderstorms will need to be monitored in the coming days, the variety of weather that the storm will produce -- rain, snow, wind, hail and thunderstorms -- will be impressive for an April storm.