Winter Returns Thursday

Some good news this week as we look forward to finally getting a little fresh snow. The sun and mild temperatures will persist through Wednesday before the change.

The cold front will approach on Thursday and right now it looks like the snow will start falling during the afternoon and into Thursday night. As the low works its way down the coast and inland over Nevada it could slow a little lingering the snow showers through the day on Friday. Much colder air will move in which will make the snow quite light. We could use some thicker snow but we won't complain at this point.

Looking at the latest precip totals we could see 1-3 inches Thursday night at the base and another 1-3 inches on Friday. On the mountain we could see 2-4 inches Thursday night and 2-4 more Friday. Looking for 5-10 inches in total on the highest peaks.

The cold air will stick around through the weekend with highs only in the 30's as the ridge begins to build in again off the coast. Next week the ridge looks like it will begin to shift North towards the Gulf of Alaska. Eventually that will drive cold air from Canada down the Coast and into much of the U.S. Then we just need the jet stream to cut underneath into the West Coast.

The forecast models are changing in the long-range and they should continue to as they catch onto the MJO progressing into the Indian Ocean. The European forecast model doesn't have the high shifting quite as far North and starts dropping cold moisture starved systems down the West coast around the 15th. The GFS forecast model has the high further North with cold air down the coast and the jet stream trying to cut in underneath. Both have some storms between the 15th-20th.

So after the quick hit of snow the end of this week we may have another week of dry weather before something may get going the end of next week.