The forecast over the next several days gets pretty simple. A building ridge of high pressure will result in mostly clear skies and warming temperatures through the weekend. After a chilly start to Thursday morning (a light frost is possible in some of the colder valley micro-climates) the sunshine should warm the afternoon up to nearly 70s degrees, and continue the warming into the low 80s by Saturday. Highs in the low 80s will stay with us through the middle of next week.

Yesterday I talked about the color codes used to describe the days air quality. This is not to be confused with our local burn code, although they are similar and there can easily be some confusion. Our burn code uses AQIs, and also assigns a green color (no burning restrictions) to good air quality and yellow (voluntary cutbacks) to moderate air quality. But the red burn code (no burning allowed) kicks in as soon as the AQI gets above 100.

When I first came to Nevada back in the 80s, Reno’s air quality was quite poor, and we were even on the EPA’s “hit list.”  But aggressive pollution mitigation programs (including the Green, Yellow and Red burn codes) have helped to take us off the EPA’s radar.