It’s been a dry couple of months and we could use the rain in the valley. We did get a spritz of rain last weekend, but we could use more. Combine our dry fuels with strong winds and low relative humidity, fire danger will be critical Monday. There is a Red Flag Warning posted for the Truckee Meadows Monday from 12pm-8pm. This time of year you really want to be fire aware every day. Sometimes big fires happen on non Red Flag Warning days because people let their guard down. You definitely don’t want to do anything that could start a fire Monday. Winds will be slightly lower Tuesday.
An area of low pressure will move south into the Pacific Northwest early this week. We’ll get the tail end of it. Some rain showers are possible near the Oregon border Monday and Tuesday, but staying dry elsewhere. There will be quite a bit of high level cloudiness Monday, but moisture will be lacking in the lower levels. That’s where it counts in terms of fire danger. The atmosphere is made of layers. The temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, dewpoint etc., all changes with height. We’ve received .04” of rain so far this month, and we need just over a couple tenths to reach normal. We are now about three inches below normal for the water year at the Reno Airport. The standard water year begins October 1st and goes through the end of September. We’re two and half inches below normal for the calendar year. Thankfully we’ve had some good winters and spring seasons lately to help our water supply. With that said, our vegetation is pretty thirsty.
Rain totals are hard to quantify in the summer because of thunderstorms. Where it counts is the airport, but that might not give us the whole picture. Thunderstorms are oftentimes isolated or scattered. Unlike winter weather, thunderstorms tends to be like polka dots and not a straight line. This means while we might get heavy rain in Sparks, the Reno Airport might not get anything. Last year was a pretty quiet summer. Some years Reno got nothing in June, but other years we got nearly an inch. It’s not unheard of for thunderstorms to produce an inch in one afternoon. This is especially true in other parts of the country.
The Sierra can see more thunderstorms than the valley, because of it’s terrain. The mountains make it easier for air to rise, saturate, and rain. You can tell the difference by looking at rain totals for Tahoe City over the years compared to Reno.
Hopefully we can get some good rain here soon, but in the meantime it appears pretty quiet.
