Cold front to bring rain, snow to Northern California

A cold front traveling down to Northern California from the Gulf of Alaska is expected to dump at least a foot of snow (30 centimeters) in higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada, weeks before the start of summer.

National Weather Service meteorologist Brendon Rubin-Oster says the first storm will arrive Wednesday afternoon and will continue through Thursday. A second system is expected this weekend.

Rubin-Oster says the storms could dump more than an inch of rain (2.5 centimeters) in some areas of the Sacramento Valley and up to 2 feet (0.5 meters) in the Sierra Nevada.

A series of winter storms this year drenched California with rain and snow that has left many of its reservoirs almost at capacity, but officials don't expect the storms to cause major runoff.