It looks like, while we might see a stray shower of snow or rain on Tuesday, things will dry up and warm up as we go through the week. The main storm track will move northward, bringing a series of storms through the Pacific Northwest through the weekend. After an isolated shower here and there on Tuesday, we will see a flat ridge of high pressure build over western Nevada, pumping our temperatures up to the upper 40s Tuesday and he way into the lower 60s Thursday and Friday, before easing back into the upper 50s over the weekend.

When we last chatted, I mentioned that air moving upward will cause rain and snow. In fact, much of my job as a meteorologist is wrapped up in trying to figure out where the upward vertical motion is and will occur. This can occur several ways. A cold front will burrow under warmer moist air, lifting it. Converging airmasses at the lower levels of the atmosphere will have nowhere to go but up, and diverging airmasses in the upper levels of the atmosphere will draw up air from the lower levels. But land can also play an important part in vertical motion of the atmosphere. More on this tomorrow.