The dry and sunny conditions will continue through the rest of the week, and although the temperatures will still stay slightly on the warm side of average, they won’t be chasing any records. A low pressure center has snuck into the Pacific Northwest, which will cool us slightly into the low 90s and upper 80s in western Nevada, but the westerly flow will keep our skies sunny and will make our afternoons a bit on the breezy side. Temperatures could finally fall out of the 90s by the start of next week.

One reason our low temperature is often higher than the “average” is much of our database occurred when the airport was surrounded by irrigated alfalfa fields. This natural swamp cooler makes a tremendous difference… especially in the night time period. Now the airport is almost entirely surrounded by concrete and asphalt. The amount of warming that it can make can be pretty drastic. Just look at differences in places like the airport (the official Reno location) and outlying areas like Spanish Springs or Washoe Valley. All of them are pretty close in elevation and general geography, but the airport can be 10-15 degrees warmer on a clear and calm night, thanks to the heat island.