Archive for March, 2017

Winter of 1969 April 1st record Broken…..No fooling…..Northwest slider to bring wind…..Light snow and cold temperatures to the Eastern Sierra….The weekend will be warmer with light breezes…..Major Change to an Active Pattern returing late next week with an AR potential.

Latest update from DWP shows the Winter of 1969 record up on Mammoth Pass broken with 88.00 inches of water through March 29th, eclipsing the old record of 86.5 inches….Although this past storm that dropped light amounts has not been tallied yet, the record has already been broken….

The Manuel Survey will be taken possibly today or this weekend, will be released to the public, possibly later next week.

Congrats to everyone that survived the Great Winter of 2017…the biggest water year through April 1st in at least 77 years.

My records on Mammoth Pass go back to 1940.

 

Dr Howard and the Dweebs…………………:-)

 

 

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Northwest slider to bring wind light snow and cold temperatures to the eastern sierra.

High Wind Warning Thursday through 8:00PM tonight.

A typical spring storm is in process today Thursday. It will bring 10 feet of wind and 1 to 3 inches of snowfall. Highlights are the winds, as initially, the upper jet moves into Northern CA Wednesday night with west wind, then backs strongly from the Northwest Thursday as the system digs SE to the Eastern Sierra. Although there is not much moisture with the system, the front is pretty energetic. It is expected to bring a quick burst of moderate snowfall to Mammoth Lakes with the front itself Late this morning and into early this afternoon

The upper jet will drive down through the Owens Valley tonight as a classic High Wind event that extends from Mono County today through most of Eastern CA to the Colorado River Valley by this afternoon.  Antecedent conditions will make for quite the gradient as Bishop reached 80 degrees on Wednesday. A 500MB-1000Mb thickness pool of 540DM will drive through eastern slopes of the sierra late tonight and remain over the central and southern Great Basin Friday morning and into the afternoon. This will make for an unseasonably cool Friday with gusty NE winds over the crest.

Weekend Outlook: 

Expect light breezy weather, not windy Saturday and Sunday with most breeze over the crest diminishing during the day Saturday. Over all, it looks like a fair weekend with a warm up! The next weather system approaches Northern CA Sunday with winds on the increase again Sunday night. Snow showers possible Sunday night and Monday with cooler temps.  Warmer weather with increasing clouds are  expected toward the middle of next week.

Longer Range:

Major Long Wave trough setting up in the Gulf of Alaska during the 6th/ 7th with the possibility of several larger storms during the 2nd half of next week. I will have more detail in my next WX letter. At the Moment we may be influenced by an Atmospheric River that is mainly focused upon Northern CA the next weekend.

High Temperatures the next few days will be in the low 40s climbing to the mid 50s for Saturday and Sunday.

Nighttime lows will be in the teens and 20s.

 

 

 

Spring Storms Bring Clouds….Wind and a Little Snow……It looks like the Mammoth Pass April 1st Record may be broken….

First of all I would like to thank all of those that have supported the “Weather Letter” this winter. Whether or not I do a weather letter next winter, I will still keep my blog going regardless. I will update it this Summer and Fall as well. It is an outlet for my passion of this wonderful and exciting science! Additionally,  I will be resuming my blog on a regular basis like during past winters for free beginning May 1st.  In the meantime, I will post more often during the transition in April…. 

This has been one of the most exciting winters I have ever experienced living in Mammoth Since 1978. I always wished that I could have lived in Mammoth during the famous Winter of 1969. This winter from what I can tell is pretty much as close as you can get to that great winter of 1969! The biggest difference that I can see was that the Owens Valley did not get the snow that it had during the winter of 1969 in January of that year.

Weather Discussion:

The weather maps this morning showed a weakening trough moving into Nevada. In its wake was a small impulse bringing some clouds, winds and not much else. Mammoth Mt reported  1 to 2 inches of snow overnight.

The bottom portion of the trough was moisture starved with only light accumulations received. I expect it to be quite breezy the next few days and windy over the top of Mammoth Mt and down through the Owens Valley. Highs on Monday will be near 40 climbing to the mid 40s Tuesday and near 50 on Wednesday. Lows will be in the teens and 20s. Expect breezy weather in town with gusts to 30 MPH this evening

I just peaked at the 5 day means in the ECMWF and GFS. Both models have the mean ridge position too close to the west coast for a meaningful storm this week. The GFS (American Models) has more amplitude and so there would be a better chance of showers later this week like Thursday from a NW slider. Overall, this week’s weather looks like periods of unsettled weather with warming and cooling, (Typically Spring) with windy periods.

For what it’s worth, the pattern does seem to be progressive with the mean ridge progressing east of California by next week. This may allow a belt of westerlies to move into our state with a significant storm about the 7th or 8th. As of 8:45AM Monday, both  European and GFS models has a significant storm in their sights. This is contrary to last nights run of the European, which was dry that period. (Caveat Emptor) Remember this is week 2 in spring, so don’t get too excited yet!!

 

Dr Howard and the Dweebs……………………:-)

 

 

Winter to go out like a Lamb while Spring Roars in Like a Lion!….Three Important Storms on the way into Week 2…

After a two-week break from the record snowfalls of January and February and early March, folks in Southern California and Mammoth I hear, are ready for more snowfall. We are still several inches of water EQ,  from the April 1st Mammoth Pass record…..

There is new snow storage now, as the few weeks of fair weather has melted quite a bit of snow in town.

Apparently, Mother Nature will make a run at the 1969 Mammoth Pass record,  with several storm systems next week into the end of March. The timing will be Tuesday/Wednesday, Friday/Saturday and again the early part of that following week. The storms now appear to be more consolidated…and so will be splitting less. They will have a Subtropical fetch…….That is the broad brush of it. All the details will be put together this evening for my Monday Morning weather letter release.

 

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Dr Howard and the Dweebs………………………….:-)