After a cloudy but mostly dry Tuesday, our skies should clear out to produce mostly sunny conditions over western Nevada for Wednesday. An offshore low pressure trough will steer in a dry and stable southwest flow through Thursday before if closes up and moves through the region on Friday, giving us nearly even chances of rain in Reno on Friday. High temperatures will start in the low 90s Wednesday and Thursday before falling into the mid-80s Friday and Saturday.

Yesterday, Harold wondered if it was the curvature of the earth that caused the sun to rise on the north side of his house, but switch to the south at noon. It’s not the curvature of the earth, but the tilt of the earth on its axis. Our latitude here in Reno (about 39 degrees N) means the path of the sun across the sky is tilted 39 degrees from perpendicular. In summer, it’s high enough in the southern sky at noon so that 39 degree tilt causes both sunrise and sunset to occur north of the east-west line, while curving to the south at noon.

In winter, the sun is low enough at noon so that it stays on the south side of your house all day.