Wednesday could be a record setting day in Reno, with a forecast high of 70 degrees topping the old record by two degrees. Temperatures will remain very warm with sunny skies through Thursday before a backdoor low pressure center drops through northeast Nevada over the weekend. It will probably be too far to the northeast to bring us any precipitation (we will probably see some clouds out of the deal), but temperatures will fall into the low 60s Friday, the low 50s on Saturday and will bottom out in the upper 40s on Sunday.

A reader asks: “Is there a corresponding jet stream in the southern hemisphere? Do large land areas that are not present in the southern hemisphere affect the jet stream?” Yes, there are corresponding jet streams in the southern hemisphere, and they act much like the ones up here do. They even flow the same way (generally west to east.)

As for large land areas’ effects on the jet stream, it’s kind of hard to answer that in real simple terms, because if you really want to get down to brass tax, anything anywhere that touches air can have some effect on the chaotic system that is the atmosphere. More tomorrow.