Winter storm brings snowfall to Humboldt, Del Norte, and Trinity counties

Snow is gracing the summits once again near Willow Creek. The winter storm rolled in Wednesday morning.

So we hit the road to check out the Horse Mountain Botanical Area near Berry Summit.

As we drove along Titlow Hill Road, we encountered foggy conditions as the weather got colder.

We saw small streams of snow runoff, snow, of course, and dangerous black ice.

This is a thin layer of ice over pavement that can look wet, but it creates a hazardous condition, especially at night.

“So if there is any water that’s sitting on the road, those cold temperatures are going to cause that water to freeze. It can be very difficult to see on the road. It could be like a wet surface when it is actually ice,” National Weather Service Ryan Aylward said.

The snow itself helps relieve california’s drought situation.

“Our reservoirs are in good shape, but if you go a couple of years without snow, it could easily get back to the situation that we had a couple of years ago where the reservoirs were extremely low. So every year, we need to be adding to that snowpack,” Aylward said.

But this week’s snow doesn’t compare to last year’s. 

“Last year there was epic snowfall across our region. You can’t even compare anything happening to last year because that was something that we hadn’t seen for maybe thirty years,” Aylward said.

Snow fell on Arcata and Eureka, a rare sight to behold for those coastal towns.

The National Weather Service is asking residents to share snow and hail reports as the storms continue.