Scattered showers and thunderstorms have resumed Wednesday afternoon around Carson City and surrounding counties. Storms could yield heavy rain, gusty outflow winds, small hail and frequent lightning. Some storms could be strong to severe, according to the National Weather Service in Reno.
While a bulk of the thunderstorm development is expected now to the 8 p.m., timeframe, a few of storms could linger through about 10pm across far northern Washoe County this evening, NWS forecasters said.
The main hazards with any storm will be hail up to 1 inch, frequent lightning, heavy rain, and gusty/erratic winds of 40-50+ mph.
While storm motions will be faster today, localized areas of heavy rainfall could lead to localized flash flooding, particularly on area burn scars. South to north moving storms may also result in areas of blowing dust which could track along sections of I-80 mainly east of Fernley where outflows could loft dust off the Carson Sink.
With these thunderstorms, there is a chance of lightning caused fires. While these storms will be moving a little faster than Tuesday, the moisture they produce should keep storms more so on the wet side with the main impacts expected to be hail, gusty outflow winds of 40-50 mph, and frequent lightning.
While these storms are predominately wet, any storm is capable of new fire ignitions in any receptive fuels, according to the weather service.
Thunderstorm chances will begin to wane by Thursday as drier southwest flow filters into the region. Any lingering shower and storm chances will largely remain north of I-80 on Thursday with just a 10-15% chance remaining across the Surprise Valley and far northern Washoe County on Friday.
