We will finally move into a drier and calmer pattern after rain and snow Thursday night. Colder air will move into the region, dropping snow levels to near Lake Tahoe level, and scattered showers of rain will remain for the valleys. High temperatures will fall to the lower 50s Friday, and will drop further into the 40s over the weekend as the skies clear out.

In the meantime, a Winter Storm Warning remains for the mountains through Friday with an additional foot or more of snowfall in the upper elevations.

The high winds will ease as we head into the weekend, still breezy on Friday (gusts to 30 mph) and dropping to about 10 mph on Saturday.

After a slight chance of an early Saturday morning snow shower, the weather clears out and remains dry through the middle of next week, after which another storm appears ready to move on shore.

If you were wondering how all this is contributing to the snowpack, the numbers are pretty impressive. In the area snow basins, even if we didn’t get another drop of rain or flak of snow (not likely), we would still finish the snow year at 145-155% of average. We have a real shot at the highest ever.