A moderate strength winter storm will roll through the region for the first half of the weekend, kicking up some strong winds and bringing a mixture of rain and snow. The second of two storm fronts will move into western Nevada Saturday morning, dropping snow levels to near the valley floor, although no significant valley accumulations are expected. High temperatures will drop to the 40s and will remain there through the weekend.

The mountains are under a Winter Weather Advisory through Saturday afternoon, with 2-7” of snow possible depending on elevation on the eastern side of the crest, and heavier amounts possible once you get over to west of the passes. Scattered showers will continue into Sunday morning after which things should dry out and remain so well into next week.

Pete had the following comment: “I know Dec 20 or 21 is the shortest day of the year, but what is the date of the latest sunrise? And while we are at it how about the earliest sunset?”

One might think that the latest sunrise and the earliest sunset would be on the Winter Solstice (Dec 21 usually), but because of the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit that isn’t the case. The sunrises keep getting later for about two weeks after the solstice, and they max out about the 5^th of January, just before 7:20 local time. The earliest sunset is on the other side of the solstice, on the 8^th or 9^th of December (depending on the year), at 4:36 local time. The combination of the two still makes the solstice the shortest day of the year.