Meterorolgist Mike Hernandez's Blog

Our weekend storm is still on track and this one looks to be very wet.  Clouds will increase today across the area with the slight chance of a shower.  By Friday the low will get picked up by the storm track and pushed toward the southwest.  Rain and high mountain snow will overspread the state Friday night and last through Saturday.  This system has the potential to drop over an inch of rain in some of the western valley sections of the state.  By Sunday afternoon we will clear out.

The big question with this system is at what elevation will the rain/snow line setup.  Right now it looks to me to be between 8,000' and 9,000'.  If this is the case most of our ski areas will pick up a very heavy wet snow that will be very good for setting a base for the ski season.  A couple factors could help us achieve a major mountain snowfall.  ; The first will be what time the storm heads in.  If it comes in late Friday night when temps are at their coolest this will help with the snow numbers.  In addition if we get a cold front from the northeast this will help the snow to pile up as well. 

There are still some details we are ironing out with this storm but it looks fairly certain at the very least we are headed for a rainy and cool weekend.  Bust potential is 20%.

Mark Ronchetti