The warming trend will continue into the weekend. The storm track is staying well to the north, allowing our skies to stay clear and our temperatures to rise into the 70s. Winds should stay light through Friday. The ridge begins to break down a bit toward the end of the weekend, and temperatures will fall back to the upper 60s on Sunday. By Monday, a low pressure center will move close enough to bring us a chance of showers to start the next week.

Yesterday, I talked about the rain shadow and how it suppresses rain totals here, but doesn’t necessarily eliminate it. Just how does a rain shadow work? The easiest way to explain that is to talk about how rain occurs in the first place. Without going into too much detail, clouds (and ultimately rain) occur when moisture laden air rises. As air rises, it expands thanks to less pressure, and it gets colder (Google the Ideal Gas Law if you want to know more.) As air cools, water vapor condenses into droplets, ergo clouds and rain can follow.

So what does this have to do with the rain shadow? I’ll tell you tomorrow.