The heat will finally start to result in some afternoon cloudiness, and although it has been a slow process, the monsoonal moisture coming up from Arizona will likely make it close to the Lake Tahoe area by Thursday, and should move through the Reno area by Friday. That brings a chance of mainly afternoon thunderstorms with it, while high temperatures will continue to hover around the 100 degree mark through the weekend. We have a Fire Weather Watch posted starting Thursday afternoon as a result of the chance of dry lightning. Conditions do stabilize by the end of the weekend and things should dry out as we start the next work week.

Finishing up yesterday’s column: Because we are travelling around the sun slower this time of year, we over-rotate just a bit every 24 hours. This effect delays the time that the sun sets each night, offsetting the shortening of the days. Conversely, it takes extra time off the morning, but it takes a while before we take the time off the evening. As we speed up our orbit that offsetting effect evens out, and both sunrises get later and sunsets get earlier.

Now in the winter (late December/early January), the opposite happens… the sunrise stays the same while the sunsets start to get later. Give it six months and you’ll see.