Temperatures will peak on Thursday in the mid-80s in the valley as the ridge of high pressure moves fully onshore. That heat will cause some afternoon cloudiness, and could even cause an isolated afternoon thunderstorm to pop up here and there. Friday will be a transitional day, with the high dropping to the upper 70s and the winds picking up in the afternoon ahead of a weak to moderate storm moving in over the weekend.

The weekend will be unsettled and cooler with highs near 60 degrees with scattered rain showers. Snow levels should remain above the major mountain passes, but some minor accumulations could occur on the mountain tops. Temperatures will rebound a bit early next week (back into the mid to upper-60s), but scattered to isolated rain showers will remain in the forecast through Wednesday at least.

Yesterday I mentioned that wind chill usually doesn’t affect plants. But it does affect us. We humans are endothermic (warm-blooded), so wind will continue to chill us since our body’s temperature stays above the air temperature in most cases. (Once the air temperature approaches our body’s temperature, wind chill doesn’t apply.)  So wind chill affects us more than it does plants.