A Chilly Thursday:
A cold front moved through the region early Thursday morning. We are starting the day with temperatures in the 20s and 30s. We will see partly-mostly sunny skies but cold for Thursday. Highs into the 30s for the upper mountains and 40s for the lower elevations.
Weekend Weather:
Mostly sunny skies and warming temperatures for the weekend as weak high pressure builds in over the region. Highs warming into the 40s for the upper elevations on Friday and 50s near the base. Then warming into the 50s over the weekend to near 60 degrees at the base.
This weather could last into Monday as the next storm is slowing its arrival on the latest model runs.
Next Storm:
The latest model runs show the slow-moving low-pressure system digging down the coast and spinning off the CA coast by Monday, but slowly moving inland. They show the initial precipitation reaching the northern Sierra sometime between Monday night and Tuesday night.
There’s no way to know for sure when precipitation will reach us. We’ll just have to keep watching the trends. Once it does, the showers could last through the day on Monday, or maybe even into Thursday on the slower solutions.
Colder air will move in as well, with falling snow levels. Highs into the 40s for the lower elevations and 30s for the higher elevations for Tuesday and Wednesday. Snow levels start above 9000 ft. ahead of the low and then could fall near the base as the center of the low passes over the northern Sierra on Wednesday.
That means we could see rain for the lower elevations to start on Tuesday and then wet snow on Wednesday. The latest model runs still show up to several inches of snow possible on the upper mountain, with the OpenSnow forecast for mid-mountain still showing around 7-8 inches of snow falling.
We’ll continue to watch the trends through the weekend…
Long-Range Outlook:
Next Thursday, we will either see more showers or clearing of the storm. Then we will likely see a drier pattern for the last weekend in April through the end of the month, as high pressure builds in near the West Coast.
In that position, we should avoid any heat waves, but we will likely see seasonal temperatures with highs into the 50s and low 60s for the lowest elevations. A system could sneak in with some showers, but if we see accumulating snow next week, it could be the last time in April.
BA
