A weak and dry cold front will pass through the region dropping our high temperatures on Thursday back into the mid-70s and bringing a few clouds to the region. A shift to a light southerly flow will also bring a slight chance of thunderstorms back into the region as we head into the weekend. Initially, the focus of the attention will be in the mountains, mostly from Lake Tahoe to the south, but we have about a one in five chance here in Reno of seeing a shower or thunderstorm on Saturday…mainly in the afternoon. Temperatures will rise back to near 80 degrees through the weekend, but will cool significantly by the middle of next week.

Even though our “snow season” in the mountains officially ended on April 1, a reader asks: “I was wondering if there has ever been an April where the snowpack increased or stayed the same from April 1st to April 30?”

I’m sure there has been. The April 1 date is chosen because on average that’s about when the water content is at its peak. But around here we rarely act “normal”, and we have had some years when we’ve added a pretty hefty amount to the snowpack during April. It’s even possible with our last storm we might do the same this year, especially since we had such a poor reading to start off the month. But we have also had some very warm days this month, and I doubt we will have a net gain when we are all said and done.