This will be a much calmer, drier and warmer week than we’ve had for most of this winter. A ridge of high pressure will build in to the west coast, drying us out and causing our temperatures to climb from the low 40s Tuesday to the mid to upper-50s by the weekend. A few clouds Tuesday morning will clear out in the afternoon, and mostly sunny skies will last until the end of the week, when a weak to moderate storm drops down out of the Gulf of Alaska, bringing back some clouds and a slight chance of valley rain and mountain snow.

On another note, some time ago I saw a weather observation from the booming metropolis of Chicken, Alaska, reporting a low temperature of 72 degrees below zero F. That’s a little over 100 degrees colder than our low the same day. There’s no wonder that some of the wildlife is getting out of that area… including some of the neatest birds you will ever see. This is the time of year when the bald eagles return to the Carson Valley.

You may wonder why they choose our region to stop on their long trip. I’ll tell you tomorrow.