A fast moving storm will bring gusty winds and rain to the valleys and snow showers in the Sierra overnight into Tuesday morning, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
Gusty west-southwest winds should happen overnight into Tuesday with gusts on the order of 25-30 mph for most areas. While not a significant wind scenario, wind prone areas such as Washoe Valley and the Eastern Sierra along Highway 395 could see gusts over 40 mph which may result in tricky travel for high profile vehicles, forecasters say. Choppy water should be expected on Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake.
As this is a warmer and quick moving storm, accumulating snowfall overnight into Tuesday morning will be confined to the Sierra passes, mainly above 7,000 feet including Donner, Mt Rose, Echo, and Carson, NWS forecasters said.
Snowfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are possible which could result in slick roads and temporary chain controls. Much of the Eastern Sierra south of Bridgeport will see only limited light snowfall confined to near the Sierra crest.
For the lowers valleys, it is rain instead of snow in the forecast, with areas seeing rain showers from Susanville to Reno and Fernley to the Carson City area, forecasters said.
While not a big rainfall, with amounts around a tenth to maybe a quarter of an inch possible, wet roadways can lead to slowdowns during busier travel periods. Most of the precipitation should be out of the area by late morning.
