Christmas brought a break in precipitation, but Wednesday’s sunny skies were set to give way to sporadic rain and snow in the north state over the next few days, according to the National Weather Service.
The updated forecast from the NWS Sacramento office anticipated chances of light showers resuming in the evening, then another storm system that “will bring periods of moderate precipitation and breezy southerly winds Thursday through Friday. The last in this series of storms is expected to bring additional precipitation chances over the weekend with snow levels remaining mainly above passes.”
The revised winter weather advisory, from 10 p.m. Wednesday to noon Friday, involves “locations above 6,000 feet along the Sierra/southern Cascades.” Impacts should be moderate Thursday in the valley, foothills and mountains — but mild in all those areas Friday through Sunday. Projected rain totals for Butte County are an inch to 1½ inches Thursday to Friday evening and a half-inch to an inch Friday evening to Sunday.
NWS forecasts light rain and snow showers Monday that should clear in the afternoon.
Visit weather.gov/sto for further updates.
Prop 36 effect
A Red Bluff man became one of the first criminal suspects affected by Proposition 36 when he appeared in a Butte County court Tuesday afternoon on charges elevated from petty thefts to felonies.
Mark Belisle Jr., 30, was captured last Friday by Chico police driving a box truck filled with stolen goods from various Chico stores, according to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey. The stop followed a report that Belisle had just fled from Dick’s Sporting Goods with stolen clothes; patrol officers spotted him a few minutes later driving his truck through the Chico Wal-Mart parking lot.
Officers looked in the truck and found approximately 80 items — still in original packaging with price tags — from Old Navy, Best Buy, Target and Boot Barn.
Ramsey said Belisle kept his thefts at each store below the felony grand theft limit of $950, which before Proposition 36 would have resulted in a series of petty theft charges. But under Prop 36, which took effect two days earlier, Ramsey said prosecutors could “aggregate” (or add up) the individual thefts and charge him with felony grand theft.
Additionally, Ramsey said, Belisle’s record showed five prior theft-related convictions in Tehama County; that triggered another provision of Proposition 36 allowing prosecutors to charge him with a new felony of petty theft with two or more prior theft convictions. Belisle also was charged with committing the Chico thefts while on bail for pending theft and drug-related crimes in Tehama County, for which he had outstanding warrants as he failed to appear in Tehama County Superior Court.
Belisle got arraigned in Butte County Superior Court and was remanded to Butte County Jail in lieu of $140,000 bail. His next court appearance is Dec. 31.