The National Weather Service says a storm will move in Monday night and bring some rain to the valley and snow to the Sierra, with most of the precipitation coming on Tuesday.
"It's a nice little storm and we'll take whatever we can get, but it's not going to be huge," said Jason Clapp, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
He said half-an-inch of rain is likely in the valley, and several inches of snow are possible in the Sierra at higher elevations.
Clapp said thunderstorms are possible in the valley and the foothills, and they could include hail. "It's a cooler air mass, which can bring the freezing levels down, so it just means that the air that's freezing is lower to the service, which can allow the hail to actually reach the ground without melting."
According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento has received about half the precipitation it would have in a normal year.
"We would've had to have gotten rain almost like every other day - quite a bit of it - all the way through May to even get to average, and obviously that didn't happen."
Clapp said another storm could be headed to the region on Friday.
A chance of showers along with much cooler temperatures tonight and tomorrow. Snow mainly above 5000ft #cawx pic.twitter.com/dethQj1jnx
— NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) April 21, 2014
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