A deep plume of moisture is moving onshore giving us an even chance of getting some valley rain on Wednesday, and an better than even chance of mountain rain and snow. It is a fairly warm tap of water coming up from the sub-tropics, so snow levels will range from 6,500’ (Wednesday morning) and rising up to 7,500’ later in the afternoon. Travel over the major passes probably won’t be adversely affected, but some minor accumulations and brief chain controls are a slight possibility early in the day. The system passes through pretty quickly and mostly sunny skies will return Thursday. Temperatures will cool to the upper 50s to lower 60s Wednesday and Thursday, before returning to the 70s for the weekend.

Some of the best questions I get are sent in by local students. Here’s one: “Can we have a hurricane or a tropical storm in Nevada?” –  Theoretically, I guess it’s possible, but I doubt that either of us will ever see it. Hurricanes and tropical storms, by definition, form in the tropics (there’s a stretch, huh?), so either one would have to travel quite a haul in order to get here. Tomorrow I’ll tell you about an even bigger challenge.