Carson City area weather: Storm to bring breezy to gusty winds, rain and high elevation snow
After a day of relative sunshine and calm, a warm storm will bring rain to Carson City and surrounding counties, high elevation snow along with breezy valley conditions and gusty ridge winds late Tuesday into Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.
Forecasters say warm subtropical moisture will move into the region Tuesday with ridge-level winds increasing late Tuesday morning before gusts peak overnight around 80 to 100 mph. Valley areas will be breezy. Ridge winds will remain elevated through Wednesday, with breezy southwesterly winds mixing down to valleys by Wednesday afternoon.
Light showers are possible ahead of this system over the Sierra and northeast California as early as late Tuesday morning, with a 25 percent chance. The main precipitation band moves in by Tuesday afternoon, wrapping up by late Wednesday morning. Snow levels will be higher than previous storms due to the subtropical tap.
Snow levels will hover between 8,000 to 8,500 feet during the main precipitation event, perhaps upwards of 9,000 feet at times. As such, accumulating will remain confined to the high Sierra, with 2-6 inches possible above 8,000 feet. See NVroads.com or call 511 for the latest travel conditions.
In terms of liquid totals, highest values are expected along the Sierra crest, generally between 0.75-1 to an inch. A sharp gradient in liquid accumulations is expected east of the crest due to substantial rain shadowing, with 0.25-0.5 of an inch generally west of US-395 and 0-0.1 of an inch east of US-395.
After the system passes, forecasters say to expect above-average temperatures and dry conditions. Weather models are showing a more progressive pattern setting up in the north Pacific by the weekend, which may bring additional warm storms to our region, forecasters said.