Strong and damaging winds likely over the Sierra above 4000 feet late Wednesday through Friday with gusty winds elsewhere. Warming and drying trend through the weekend.

Ensembles and Clusters are in good agreement with upper low taking shape over the northern Rockies today dropping south into the Great Basin Region tonight then continuing south along the Colorado River Valley and into SoCal Thursday afternoon into Friday.

This track is a favorable pattern for strong and gusty winds both down the Sacramento Valley into the Delta and downslope along the Sierra. EFI signal continues to highlight anomalous speeds and gusts over these areas with a particularly high signal over the Sierra above 4,000 feet along interstate 80 from Blue Canyon to Donner Pass southward towards Yosemite.

Wind Advisory for portions of the Valley, and a High Wind warning for areas in the Sierra and southern Cascades above 4000 ft. Strong winds will cause difficult driving conditions in these areas, as well as downed trees and power outages in the mountains.

A High windwarning has been issued for the Sierra above 4,000 feet. Northeast winds 40 to 55 mph with gusts up to 75 mph are possible. Damaging winds will likely blow down trees and power lines.

Widespread power outages are expected. Travel will be difficult, especially for high profile vehicles.

Gusty north to east winds begin to increase by midday, becoming strong tonight through Friday. Strongest winds expected over the Sierra, with impactful wind gusts still through the foothills, Valley, and Delta.

Wind advisory is in effect for the Northern Sacramento Valley, Central Sacramento Valley, Southern Sacramento Valley, Carquinez Strait and Delta and Northern San Joaquin Valley with north winds 25 to 35 mph and gusts up to 45 mph expected. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result. Winds will diminish late Friday, as low weakens and begins to shift east over Arizona.

Upper levelridge will build over Northern California over the weekend with dry weather and Valley high temperatures in the 70’s.

Extended Discussion (Sunday through Wednesday)

Dry weather with lighter wind Sunday into early next week as interior NorCal is sandwiched between upper high to the north and upper low to the southeast. Models solutions differ Wednesday with depth of short wave progged to impact West Coast. NBM painting some slight chance/chance POPs across the Shasta and W Plumas mountains and N Sierra Nevada Wednesday afternoon into evening.