textproduct: Reno

KEY MESSAGES

* Lingering showers and isolated thunderstorms will begin to diminish this evening across Pershing/Churchill counties.

* Following a break on Tuesday, a mid-week cold front will bring back light rain and snow chances areawide along with gusty winds, particularly for the W.Nevada Basin and Range.

* Dry conditions and near to above average temperatures are forecast toward the end of the week.

DISCUSSION

A few showers, along with a few isolated lightning strikes, will continue to drift eastward across Pershing County this afternoon along the departing shortwave axis. Most of the this activity will dissipate by early evening.

Tuesday will yield dry and mild conditions once again as highs for W.Nevada and NE California valleys warm into the low 60s with Sierra valley seeing low to mid-50s. These conditions will be short lived as the next shortwave trough and cold front sweep through the Sierra and western Nevada on Wednesday.

The main impacts with this system will be light valley rain and mountain snow showers and gusty winds along a cold front passage. Precipitation will track across far NE California and NW Nevada through mid-afternoon Wednesday then south through US-50 by Wednesday evening. Snow levels will hang around 6000-7000' in the afternoon, then drop to 5000-5500' behind the front. Any snow accumulations may be confined to the Sierra Passes around the Tahoe Basin with a 30-40% chance of up to 2 inches through Wednesday night.

Gusty winds will also accompany this system mainly late Wednesday afternoon into the evening as the approaching cold front tightens the surface gradient and produces a quick burst of strong and gusty winds along the front as it passes through. Gusty west winds ahead of the front will short northerly behind the front with gusts up to 50 mph mainly the W.Nevada Basin and Range down through Mineral and S.Lyon counties. As a result, a Wind Advisory has been issued for these areas. Expect impacts for recreation, aviation, and cross-wind hazards for road travel, especially for high profile vehicles.

Temperatures will cool into the lower 50s behind the front on Thursday with 40s for Sierra valleys. Outside of a few lingering showers (10-20% chance) Thursday/Friday, drier conditions will prevail through the weekend with temperatures warming back to the mid-60s for western Nevada and mid-upper 50s for Sierra valleys. Fuentes.

AVIATION

VFR conditions will prevail through Tuesday with only a 15-20% of a lingering shower east of KLOL-KNFL through 03z this evening. The next weather system is expected by Wednesday which will provide light rain and mountain showers with gusty west to northwest winds with a cold front passage late Wednesday afternoon and evening. Fuentes.

REV Watches/Warnings/Advisories

NV...Wind Advisory from 1 PM to 10 PM PST Wednesday NVZ001-004.

CA...None.