Carson City area weather: Gusty winds Monday prompt advisory
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Sun, 05/01/2022 - 11:15am
Gusty winds expected to arrive Monday has prompted the National Weather Service to issue a wind advisory for much of the Carson City region, including Carson Valley and at Lake Tahoe.
West winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 55 mph expected. Locally stronger gusts in wind prone locations. Sierra ridge wind gusts near 100 mph. Waves 2 to 4 feet on area lakes. The advisory, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, also covers western Nevada and range locations including Pyramid Lake.
The weather service advises gusty winds could cause a few power outages, as well as blown tree limbs and unsecured objects.
Choppy conditions are expected for Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake with waves 2 to 4 feet possible. Small boats, kayaks, and paddle boards will be prone to capsizing and should remain off lake waters until conditions improve.
Now is the time to secure loose outdoor items such as patio furniture, holiday decorations, and trash cans before winds increase which could blow these items away. The best thing to do is prepare ahead of time by making sure you have extra food and water on hand, flashlights with spare batteries and/or candles in the event of a power outage.
Go here or read below the latest forecast discussion from the weather service.
Our "slider-like" system is pushing a cold front through northern Nevada. We're still watching winds on Monday with the cold front pushing through the region midday. Ensemble meteograms don't have quite as much variation as the past few nights between the upper and lower percentiles and overall the data has trended toward the mid-upper range for the wind speeds. This gives us confidence in robust sustained wind speeds due to the strong gradient.
Overall, valleys will see wind gusts in the 40-55 mph range, locally stronger in wind prone locations. 700 mb winds peak out 60-70 kts for a brief period midday Monday with gusts across Sierra ridgelines likely to exceed 100 mph. There are hints of downslope enhancement in model soundings and cross sections so brief periods of stronger gusts exceeding 65 mph are possible coming out of canyons along the US-395/I-80 corridor, particularly from Reno south through Mammoth this afternoon.
Winds will almost certainly cause travel difficulties both in the air and on the ground with potential for high profile vehicle travel restrictions. Check with NVRoads.com or Caltrans for ground travel and with your airline if you happen to be flying in/out of the area Monday.
In addition, backcountry and ski recreation could be impacted along with choppy conditions on area lakes. We could also see areas of blowing dust downwind of dry lake beds and sinks, especially across west-central Nevada, possible affecting I-80, US-50, and US-95.
A few light showers are possible near the Oregon border Monday, otherwise it will be a dry front with minimum afternoon humidity values dropping to 10 to 20 percent. The dry air along with gusty winds bring enhanced fire weather concerns. Please avoid any activities that could cause a spark.
Tuesday through the weekend
A chilly start on Tuesday morning will give way to seasonably mild temperatures for the afternoon with a warming trend in store for Wednesday and Thursday. With clear to partly cloudy skies, temperatures look to rise to around 10-15 degrees above average Wednesday and Thursday or mid 60s to lower 70s for Sierra valleys and mid 70s to mid 80s for lower valleys.
Afternoon breezes are projected to increase by Thursday afternoon as an upper ridge overhead later Tuesday and Wednesday pushes off to the east as low pressure approaches the Pacific Northwest. Southwest to west gusts 25-35 mph with local gusts to 40 mph are on the table for Thursday afternoon.
Friday and Saturday, the Pacific Northwest trough gradually digs southward and increases chances for light valley rain and higher mountain snow showers, especially north of I-80, with breezy conditions Friday possibly increasing some Saturday (possibly the breeziest day of the long term) as the impinging trough pushes a cold front into the region. Temperatures gradually fall off between Friday and Sunday with highs topping out in the 50s and 60s by late in the weekend.
Check back for updates.
