Tahoe Prepares For Wintry Blast; Bay Area Dodges Latest Atmospheric River

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- An atmospheric river slid down the West Coast Monday, taking aim at the burn zones in Southern California and sparring the Bay Area from another dose of torrential rains and flooding.

However, San Francisco and its neighboring communities will be in for intermittent showers on Tuesday and Wednesday from a comma-shaped low front off the West Coast.

"(The storm front will) generate moderate rainfall amounts across our area, and brief locally heavy rain is possible, especially late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning," the weather service said. "Rainfall totals from Tuesday through Wednesday are currently forecast to range from a half inch to an inch in most urban/coastal/valley locations, and from 1 to 2 inches in the hills."

The roadways will be wet for the morning commute, forecasters said, but nothing like the pounding the area received from a series of storm late last month.

The National Weather Service tweeted on Sunday that San Francisco had gotten 7.94 inches of rain in February -- the 11th wettest February on record. The normal rainfall for the month is 4.46 inches.

While the Bay Area will be spared much of Mother Nature's fury, that will not be the case in the Sierra.

The weather service has issued a winter storm watch that goes into effect Tuesday morning in the mountains around Lake Tahoe, where 1 to 3 feet of new snow is possible in the upper elevations.

The National Weather Service says 3 to 10 inches of snow is expected as low as 6,000 feet.

The new snowfall will add to the record totals during what forecasters are calling "FebruBURIED." In the month of February, Squaw Valley received 570 inches of snow, Homewood 533 inches, Mammoth Mountain 574 inches, Boreal 516 inches and Northstar 506 inches.

The service says winds could gust as high as 80 mph over the Sierra ridge tops. The storm watch runs through Wednesday night.