textproduct: Reno

KEY MESSAGES

* Breezy in the mountains today, with sub-zero wind chills on ridges and choppy waters on Tahoe.

* Cold temperatures today with a slight warming trend through Friday. Warming amplifies this weekend, with above normal temperatures favored into next week.

* No significant storms through at least mid-next week, but a few light rain or snow showers are possible Friday or Saturday along the Oregon border.

DISCUSSION

With the ridge positioned well off of the West Coast, the northeastern periphery of the ridge has settled overhead of northeastern California and northwestern Nevada. What does this mean for us? The positioning is favorable to allow shortwave troughs to graze the region. The dry cold front that passed through the area overnight is leaving behind some relatively colder air and easterly breezes for today. Be aware of choppy lake waters on Lake Tahoe today, particularly along the western shores. If you have plans to be up in the mountains, be sure to bundle up since ridge winds could approach 60 mph in and around the Tahoe Basin, bringing wind chills below zero. Further south in Mono County, easterly ridge gusts will reach 35-40 mph. For western Nevada valleys, gusts will be more typical, around 10-15 mph.

The ridge will influence the airmass once again on Thursday, as warming temperatures return. The benign weather pattern will bring light winds as yet another trough sets up to our north ahead of the weekend. Rain and snow may be found this weekend along the Oregon border, while elsewhere only clouds will be in the sky. Very little accumulation is expected, with only moderate confidence that anything more than a few hundredths will reach the ground.

Into the next work week, the ridge nudges a bit inland, bringing more of it's influence of warm and dry weather. At the same time, the ridge flattens a bit along the northern California border, keeping us from realizing a stronger late season warmup. Even so, highs for western Nevada valleys look to be around 15 degrees above seasonal averages. Sierra valleys will also be hovering in the low 60s, which is almost 20 degrees above normal for early December. Beyond, guidance is hinting at a system into the following weekend, but low confidence until better agreement and alignment emerges. HRICH

AVIATION

* Easterly breezes will induce turbulence along and west of the Sierra today, bringing LLWS over the range. Gusts will be around 15 kts for KRNO, KCXP, KMEV. Sierra valley terminals KTRK/KTVL could see gusts approach 20 kts this morning. Winds will taper after sunset.

* VFR conditions prevail through today and Thursday, with cloud cover keeping fog from forming at KTRK overnight. HRICH

REV Watches/Warnings/Advisories

NV...Lake Wind Advisory until 10 AM PST this morning NVZ002.

CA...Lake Wind Advisory until 10 AM PST this morning CAZ072.