A highly amplified upper ridge continues full latitude into the Gulf of AK this week.  Upper flow today and tomorrow is right out of the north.  Tomorrow, some of that ridge will spread higher heights into California for about 10F degrees of warming while a small upper low comes through the ridge and down the west coast Thursday. Another short wave seems to track in tandem but is not connected as it moves through the Great Basin and Rockies.

The idea is one more of instability for our area Thursday evening and especially Friday, as if this were winter, this little feature would not do much more than create a wind shift. So it is Mid April and CAPE is running higher now. I expect a few isolated showers Thursday late afternoon and especially the evening over Eastern CA as an area of deformation develops over night. On Friday, a zone of east-west deformation develops across South Central Nevada and spreads further west into Eastern CA Friday, triggering snow showers and possible thunder snow.   As the petite upper feature gets closer to the California Coast and comes through Friday, weak upper divergence is possible, to spread showers up the Sierra. The deformation to the SE should keep some action going into Friday night, especially for the Owens Valley.

Snow showers and a few Thunder Storms with some grapple is possible for Eastern CA late Thursday afternoon and evening. Nocturnal storms may continue well into the evening…..Then additional instability expected Friday for greater Arial Coverage.

 

Saturday looks to be a fair to partly cloudy day with a little warning.  Antecedent moisture will be left behind for Sundays storm.  The Sunday afternoon through mainly Monday system looks more impressive for the Sierra.. Although not a major storm by any means….This undercutting system that moves in Sunday has decent on shore flow Sunday night into early Tuesday. Just a WAG….this might bring some six inches+ of snowfall to the higher elevations by Tuesday. However, this is just based upon pattern recognition….

 

High temps this week will fluctuate between the mid 50s Wednesday to back down into the 40s this weekend. Lows at night in the 20s for the most part.

 

This is likely to be more unsettled WX before the end of the month……

 

Dr Howard and the Dweebs………:-)