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

  Drought Update Report  NWS Reno  Issued: 03/19/2021  Schedule: Monthly during periods of extreme drought designation  _____________________________________________________________________  Drought conditions persist  Synopsis: Precipitation and snow accumulation in February and the first half of March were well below average for the Sierra, and pretty much closed the door on the odds of recovering snowpack and water supply conditions to near average with only a few weeks remaining in the typical snow accumulation season. Conditions were somewhat better in far northeastern CA and northwestern NV, but still well short of significant drought recovery. Mid-February storms were most beneficial to northern Nevada, but precipitation since February 1st is well below average for SNOTEL stations on the east side of the central Sierra (Figure 1). The past 30 day mountain precipitation was even worse throughout the state, but especially for the Sierra where site...

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.

Gusty Ridges, Calm Valleys.  We have gotten a lot of questions lately about why it's so windy up in the mountains and why there are  no winds down in the valleys, so we figured we would write up a quick blog post about it. Let's talk  observations...these are just a spattering of observations from an event we had this week  (Dec 6-8, 2020). Notice the big difference between the ridges and the valley locations.  Let's not get stuck on the actual numbers at the ridges, since some of those sensors can get a little 'off' once wind speeds really pick up, the more important thing to note is the large differences in the wind  gusts from ridges to foothills to valleys. (note obviously Peavine was having a bit of trouble too)  We want to dig into how this occurs and why it happens! So if you're brave and ready for some science,  then continue onward. General Weather Setup  It is a well known set up and similar to previous events, but the magnitude of...

Hope everyone has been doing as well as possible! For this newsletter, we will begin with the usual summary of regional climate features over the past few months. That will be followed by a look at abnormally warm ocean waters, also known as a “marine heat wave”, which have set up across the North Pacific. Finally, we’ll throw in a few words about climate averages from The National Centers for Environmental Information which are due to be updated by the middle of next year. Note: If you have any questions or would like clarification on what is presented in this newsletter, feel free to message us on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/NWSReno/ ) or email w-rev.webmaster@noaa.gov ________________________________________________________________________________ So, what’s been happening from a climatological perspective across northeast California, the Sierra, and western Nevada? Summer high temperatures ran considerably above average when compared with the averages from 1981-2010 (the la...

  CLIMATE NEWS April, 2020 Hello folks! The National Weather Service in Reno hopes you are doing well during these unusual times.  This will be the first edition of a periodic newsletter that will contain summaries of various aspects of the climate, mainly across northeast CA, the Sierra, and western NV but sometimes on a continental or global scale.   NOTE : if you have any questions or would like clarification on what is presented in this or future newsletters, feel free to shoot us a message on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/NWSReno/ ) or email w-rev.webmaster@noaa.gov Alright, let’s start with a summary of the recent precipitation and temperature trends around the region. Here are a couple maps showing that the region has generally been warmer than average temperature-wise (+1.6 degrees at Reno) with well below average precipitation (48% Reno) since late January. Source: https://climatetoolbox.org/ The notable lack of precipitation has led to a below average...