Along with cold temperatures settling into Carson City, a winter mix of freezing rain and snow expected to arrive Wednesday night will create travel problems throughout the region into Thursday morning, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a Winter Weather Advisory.
Snow will spread across the entire area, including valley floors into Carson City by Wednesday night, then become mixed as freezing rain and sleet. Up to 3 inches of snow is possible. The biggest concern is that some isolated areas may see a brief period of freezing rain, which only takes a small amount of to create serious hazard to travelers. Up to a tenth of an inch of freezing rain is possible.
The Winter Weather Advisory is from 4 p.m. Wednesday to 10 a.m. Thursday.
The possibility for freezing rain is expected to be mostly in colder valley locations. Predictability is low in exactly where freezing rain will occur, but where it does, the impacts will be very dangerous driving (and even walking) conditions, according to the weather service. Remember: freezing rain on roadways may only appear to be wet. Leave extra time for travel and be extra cautious of ‘wet roads’ that may in fact be icy.
More rain and high elevation snow is likely Thursday through Saturday as well. Snow levels will eventually rise Thursday afternoon to over 7,500-8,000 feet as the next push of subtropical moisture moves closer to our area. This moderate atmospheric river will bring moderate to heavy rainfall late in the day on Thursday and into Friday. With snow levels rising, most Sierra passes will be free from additional travel impacts with the exception of Mount Rose Summit, Carson Pass, and Conway Summit on Highway 395.
On Friday, periods of rain and snow will continue mainly near the Sierra, although precip rates will likely be lighter compared to Thursday night as forcing becomes weaker within the atmospheric river. For Carson City and western Nevada, lighter and more sparse rain showers are expected.
This weaker forcing combined with strong winds aloft will lead to a period of gusty winds for much of the day, with gusts of 40-50 mph possible for western Nevada and up to 100 mph in the Sierra ridges.
Check the latest forecast at weather.gov/Reno and check road conditions with Caltrans and NDOT.
For the latest weather discussion go here. For weather updates for Carson City, see CarsonWeather.com.
