We have reached the peak of our temperature curve for the next week, and as we head into the second half of the week, we will see a steady downhill slide to our high temperatures, culminating in a 20+ degree drop and a chance of showers by Friday.

For the short term, Wednesday will still be mostly sunny and warm, with a high temperature in the upper 80s. A cold front begins a slow transit across California Thursday, kicking up some gusty winds and dropping our high temperature to the upper 70s. By Friday, even though the rain shadow will keep most of the rain up in the mountains, we do have a slight chance of rain showers here in Reno and our high will barely make 70. The weekend dries up, but will stay cool with highs in the upper 60s.

If it isn’t obvious by this time, I’m a big fan of using swamp coolers in this part of the country. Besides the obvious cost savings (in addition to the power savings, they probably average less than a fifth of the cost initially), there are some other nice benefits. They move a higher volume of air and are designed to flush out the atmosphere in your home instead of just recycling stale air, so they may be helpful preventing summertime colds and flus. It also adds a little moisture to our desert-dry air, which is helpful to some who suffer from sinus irritation.