Strong winds associated with a cold front have kicked off a High Wind Warning for western Nevada, in effect throughout the day Wednesday. Those winds will create an initial rain shadow for the valleys, but late in the day as the winds ease a bit we could see some rain reach the Reno area. As the front moves through Wednesday night snow levels will fall from 7,500’ all the way down to near the valley floors, although all the heat left over from our recent warm temperatures should limit valley accumulations. High temperatures in the low 60s will crash down to the upper 40s on Thursday.

For the mountains, a Winter Storm Warning will go into effect Wednesday evening, with the heaviest precipitation expected to occur overnight. Possible accumulations are in the one to two foot range above 7,000’, with significantly less at lake level.

By Friday, the storm system should be out of the area, and it looks like things will warm up and dry out in time for the weekend, with valley temperatures approaching 60 degrees by Sunday.