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

 We have had quite a few meteorologists and staff come and go over the years, so we figured it was time to introduce you to some of the newer forecasters. Heather has been working with us at NWS Reno since mid August and is quickly familiarizing herself with the quirks of eastern Sierra and Nevada weather.  Welcome to Heather!  Heather first became interested in meteorology as a child growing up in Michigan, witnessing many storms, floods, and winter events. Her family lived along a river in a flood zone, and had three separate occasions of complete inundation of their house. Her undergraduate degree in meteorology (Central Michigan University) and Master’s degree in geography (Ball State University) allowed her to study the hydrological and meteorological relationships responsible for the flood events that led to the inundations. Heather used GIS, hydrology, and meteorology to model flood behavior for flooding related to frozen versus unfrozen soil conditions. She was s...

(2-3) Image source:  https://climatetoolbox.org/tool/Climate-Mapper (4) Image source: nrcs.usda.gov (5) Image source: drought.gov (6-8) Images source:  https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov (9) Image source:  https://rangelands.app/great-basin-fire (10) Image source:  https://www.ncei.noaa.gov (11) Image source:  https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/plotting/auto

Image source: Westwide Drought Tracker... https://wrcc.dri.edu/wwdt/ Red X = approximate location of Reno-Sparks. Percentile: 100th percentile (darker green) would mean an area had their wettest precipitation period as compared with past October-December or December periods in the climate record. 0th percentile (dark brown) would be the driest. Therefore, for the October - December period, most areas in eastern CA and western NV received precipitation in the lowest 1/3rd of other October-December periods in the climate record.