It’s a pretty simple forecast this week as a large and very stationary ridge of high pressure will keep our skies clear through the next week. The only caveat to the clear skies description is with the large ridge in place, it will cap off some pretty strong temperature inversions in the valleys, so the high temperatures in Reno will stay in the 40s for the next three days, with highs at Tahoe within a few degrees from those in the valley. Overnight lows will be quite cold, dropping to the teens to low 20s all week.

These cold nights should have already been a reminder to get our homes winterized. That includes the standard things like changing furnace filters, installing weather stripping, and sealing up foundation vents.

Wait a minute… foundation vents? Should they really be closed in the winter? That depends on how your house is constructed, and who you ask. At first blush, it makes sense that you would want to close them up in the winter so that you don’t let cold air into your crawl space, which would make your floor colder and drive up heating costs. And there are several people out there who would agree with that. But it may not be that simple. More tomorrow.