NWS Reno: Forecasting for the Sierra and Western Nevada Since 1905

Winter Weather Returns Our first winter storm of the season with significant amounts of rainfall and Sierra snowfall is poised to affect Northeast California and Western Nevada Sunday into Monday.   A Winter Weather Advisory has been issued for Sunday Evening into Monday for portions of the Sierra from the Tahoe Basin down to Mono County. (areas in the purple shading) Link to view this map here Incoming Moisture This storm system will usher in a solid band of moisture off the Pacific Ocean and will provide healthy rainfall and high elevation snowfall totals to the region. The animation below shows a model depiction of this moisture band (orange and yellow shading).   This will also coincide with the expected precipitation timing. Rainfall enters northern Lassen County Sunday morning then drops across the Tahoe Basin Sunday Evening and finally Mono County Monday morning.  Rainfall & Snow Level : An important note to take away from this storm: S...

Welcome Tim Bardsley to the NWS Reno Team NWS Reno is happy to announce that Tim Bardsley recently arrived as the new Senior Service Hydrologist (SSH). As SSH, Tim is the primary NWS contact for hydrologic decision support, forecast and warning services in Nevada and the eastern Sierra.   SSH Tim Bardsley enjoying the great outdoors. Tim first became interested in hydrology as a college student while exploring the rivers, mountains and canyons of the West. His undergraduate degree in civil/environmental engineering (University of Colorado at Boulder) and Master’s in hydrology (University of Nevada at Reno) give him a solid framework for hydrologic research. As a researcher at Niwot Ridge, CO, and as a hydrologist at the NRCS Utah Snow Survey Office, he conducted numerous hydrologic investigations as well as repairs and maintenance at well over one hundred hydrometeorological sites in four states, including extensive field work throughout Nevada and the Sierra Ne...

Enjoy this post put together with information from Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology about the 1915 Pleasant Valley, Nevada Earthquake on its 100th anniversary. All information was taken from The 1915 Pleasant Valley, Nevada Earthquake website . - - - - - - - When folks talk about earthquakes most people consider California to be earthquake country, but Nevada gets its fair share of seismic activity too! Northern Nevada was very active geologically during 1914 and 1915, as you can see on this short video which shows activity from 1850-2012. Magnitude 6 and 6.4 earthquakes occurred in Reno during February and April of 1914 and Mt. Lassen had several eruptions between May 1914 and October 1915, occasionally dusting Winnemucca with fine ash.    The Pleasant Valley earthquake of October 2, 1915 was the largest earthquake in Nevada's recorded history. The 1915 Pleasant Valley earthquake was preceded by a rare, highly energetic foreshock sequence that forecasted th...