Travel Bulletin: I-80 California and Nevada

Green = flood watch. Pink = winter storm warning. Blue = winter storm watch. 

An extraordinary amount of rain, with snow at highest elevations, is forecast to fall in California Christmas week. 

• Along Interstate 80 between Reno and Sacramento during the next 5 days, 
• With the heaviest rains falling throughout Northern California falling Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (Christmas Eve), which includes I-5.
• Later in the week, heavy - likely flood producing - rains will fall in the Southland. 

Here is the 5-day forecast of rainfall/liquid content of snow.

That is 21" of snow in the mountains where you see the pink. Much of the precipitation will be in the form of rain which is unexpected in late December. Only at the highest elevations will it be snow. The issue, of course, will be flooding, possibly major. 

Later in the week, the flooding threat will shift to Southern California. This is the forecast rainfall to 7am Sunday.

At this point almost all of this precipitation is expected to fall in the form of rain.