Mild and balmy today, cooler and windy weekend

February 7, 2020 – Above normal temperatures continue today. Turning windy and cooler by late in the weekend with a few light Sierra snow showers on Sunday. Then, dry weather is expected thru the middle of next week.

Discussion

A few high clouds continue to spill across the top of the eastern Pacific ridge into NorCal, otherwise skies are clear. Current temperatures are milder in the foothill and mountain thermal belts compared to 24 hours ago, while most other locations are seeing similar temperatures to early Thursday. Current readings range from the 20s in the mountain valleys to the upper 30s to mid 40s across the Central Valley. Milder locales in the thermal belts are in the upper 40s and lower 50s.

Another day of dry and mild weather is in the offing for NorCal today. It may be a smidgen cooler today given the slight lowering of thickness and 850 mb temps, especially in the NE portion of the CWA, where surface high pressure building into NV in the afternoon will spread cooler air into that portion of the CWA.

Ridging begins to break down on Saturday as a trough digs into the area and moves south along the west coast. This will result in slightly cooler temperatures for the weekend with a few snow showers over the northern Sierra on Saturday night into Sunday.

Winds begin to pick up Saturday afternoon with breezy northerly winds continuing into early next week. The strongest winds will likely occur Sunday behind the trough.

Milder weather with less breezy conditions expected to return Monday.

Extended Discussion (Tuesday through Friday)

Upper ridging extends into NorCal Tuesday and Wednesday resulting in dry weather with above normal temperatures. Locally gusty northeasterly wind possible through favored canyons and over ridges of the Sierra nights and mornings.

Deterministic models deviate significantly Thursday into Friday with ECMWF digging short wave trough into NorCal while GFS maintains upper ridging. GEFS, and GEPS support ridging while EPS similar to ECMWF. For now will keep some low POPS over the mountains as suggested by NBM late Thursday into Friday.