The weather picture will calm down this week, with generally cool and dry conditions. The storm track should remain well to our north throughout the week. For Tuesday, light winds will allow valley inversions to set up once again, with highs in the 40s down low contrasting to the low 50s at the lake. A gradual warming trend occurs throughout the week, reaching the upper 50s by Friday before dropping back into the low 50s over the weekend.

On another note, this is the time of year when we can get some pretty good showers on the west side of the mountains with high winds…in fact Sunday’s storm was a great example. But it dries out pretty fast as soon as you go east from the crest of the Sierra, thanks to a strong rain shadow.

Many are confused about how a rain shadow works. It’s often described as “all the rain getting squeezed out over the mountains, so there’s none left for us here in the valley,” but that’s really not what’s happening. Tomorrow, I’ll let you know what’s really going on.