Every day ahead seems to produce a different chapter in a very busy weather story. After some Tuesday night rain showers, high winds move into the region Wednesday,  and a High Wind Warning has been issued for all valley and mountain region Wednesday and Thursday, with valley gusts Wednesday afternoon reaching 70 mph in places, and mountaintop gusts likely to reach well into the 100s. An atmospheric river moisture plume then begins to slide down from the north, bringing potentially heavy rain late Wednesday through Thursday. Snow levels will be quite high, rising to 7,000’ Wednesday and then climbing to above 8,000’ on Thursday. Rainfall amounts below that elevation in the mountains could be in the several inch range, and some valley locations (especially on the west side of the Truckee Meadows) could see well over an inch of rain as well. A Flood Watch is in effect from late Wednesday night through late Thursday night as a result, and we could see some small stream flooding again, although it is unlikely the larger rivers (Truckee, for example) will have any substantial flooding.

Much colder air moves through Friday, with morning snow showers giving way to a dry but very cold weekend.

(Because of the active weather, I’ll postpone the discussion of adiabatic cooling till later this week.)