Hopefully that will be enough to put out the Camp Fire near Paradise, California. However, after this storm today there is another one that is going to come in from the north down to about Sacramento and drop massive amounts of rain on Paradise, the Sierras all the way to the ocean (3 inches to 6 inches of rain) depending upon where you are. Also, because Snow isn expected in the Sierras, hopefully people camping or hiking there have got the message so they don't get snowed in especially at higher altitudes (or have their mountain roads to their location become impassable). When rain converts to snow it is about 10 to 12 inches of snow per inch of rain by the way. So, therefore it is possible in the Sierras to get a maximum of 6 feet of snow total from both storms by weekend.
When I was about 12 in the Panamint Mountains near Death Valley, a freak snowstorm happened and we only had a 1960 Mercury station wagon which was brand new then. We had hiked up to Telescope Peak (my mother, father and I and a friend of mine) and by the time we got back to our station wagon there was about 1 foot of snow. The problem was we didn't have tire chains and my father had to hike to the ranger's station while my mother and friend and I had to wait in the car with the heater on.
Then, a ranger drove up in his Jeep and put a chain between our car and his jeep and slowly lowered us down the dirt road so we wouldn't accidentally go off a cliff. This was I think in October of that year but this time of year (November 21st) it is more normal to get first snows in California.
Like I have said before in articles, at altitude you can get snow in California 12 months a a year. So, being prepared for that is important whenever you are at altitude. This is one of the many lessons I have had to learn living in California since 1952 when I was 4.
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