A Lot of Water
Lot of water on the way—I expect we'll see something similar to the previous storm cycles, which means not a lot of snow at SoCal resort levels but tons above 8K or so.
For you backcountry travelers, be aware this storm will fall on top of lots of sugary, unconsolidated snow in the Throop to Baden-Powell corridor. Presumably initial rain will saturate those crystals and make them sticky, but that is far from certain.
Regardless, rapid, large deposits of new snow may trigger a natural avalanche cycle with or without underlying instabilities.
If these (gigantic) water totals pan out, a good amount of chaos is virtually certain, including flooding, mudslides, road closures, and of course debris flows in the burn zones. Expect considerable travel hazards during the storm's peak.
We don't have a lot of great real-time options for tracking snow in SoCal, but you can check in on the Mount Baldy and Mountain High websites to see what totals they post—that gives a good idea as to what's happening between 7-8K.
Higher up, you can try webcams like the Palm Springs Tram and the AlertCA system, and Wundermap's radar does estimate snow-level boundaries.
— December 22, 2025
Andy Lewicky is the author and creator of SierraDescents