January 13, 2024
Summary: The noon surface observations for Madera southward to Porterville all indicated light showers as confirmed by doppler radar out of Hanford. The parent low for this system is moving into Oregon while the cold frontal system is moving through the valley at this hour. The air mass behind this system is relatively mild. The balloon sounding over Oakland this morning indicated the freezing level had jumped up to 9,700 feet. The chance of light precipitation will continue through the evening hours then will end as the frontal system weakens further and moves into southern California tonight. Upper level high pressure off shore will dominate our weather through Tuesday. The next system looks to be pretty weak. It’s in the form of a weak trough of low pressure pushing inland into California Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. A blend of models show light rain falling no further south than Merced County. Upper level high pressure bounces back Thursday into the weekend. Medium range models continue to indicate a large low will be in the Gulf of Alaska this weekend with a moisture laden jet stream moving west to east across the eastern Pacific into the pacific northwest and northern California. As is so often the case, central California will be on the dividing line between wet weather to our north and dry weather to our south.
Forecast: The chance of light rain will continue through the evening hours then will become mostly to partly cloudy with areas of fog developing late. Areas of fog and low clouds Sunday morning, otherwise it will be partly cloudy. Partly cloudy Monday night through Tuesday with areas of fog and low clouds. Mostly cloudy Tuesday night and Wednesday with patchy fog. Partly cloudy Wednesday afternoon through Saturday with areas of night and morning valley fog.
Short Term:
| Madera 40/59/38/61 | Reedley 39/60/38/59 | Dinuba 38/59/37/59 |
| Porterville 40/60/38/59 | Lindsay 38/60/37/59 | Delano 39/61/40/59 |
| Bakersfield 41/59/41/60 | Taft 42/59/45/58 | Arvin 39/61/39/60 |
| Lamont 40/60/40/59 | Pixley 37/58/38/60 | Tulare 37/58/38/60 |
| Woodlake 37/58/38/59 | Hanford 40/61/40/59 | Orosi 38/58/39/59 |
Winds: Winds through early this evening will be out of the northwest at 10 to 20 mph at times, diminishing later this evening. Winds late this evening through Saturday will be generally at or less than 6 mph with periods of near calm conditions. From Saturday night through Sunday winds will be mainly out of the northwest at 5 to 12 mph with periods of lighter winds.
Rain: The chance for light rain will continue through the evening hours, ending by the early morning hours. Expect dry weather Sunday through Tuesday. There’s a slight chance of light showers as far south as Merced County Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Otherwise, this upcoming week will be dry. Medium range models still show a moisture laden moving across the Pacific and into the Pacific Northwest and the northern half of California beginning roughly a week from now. This model change now shows the best dynamics moving in to our north. However, it’s close enough to put a chance of rain in the forecast beginning about a week from tomorrow and the first few days of the following week.
Frost: The air mass associated with the current storm is quite mild. This will do an efficient job of replacing the cold, dry air mass we’ve been dealing with to a milder one which will keep temperatures above freezing this up coming week. for now, nothing shows up on paper that would result in below freezing conditions. Expect above freezing conditions for not just this upcoming week, but possibly beyond.