Author: John Hibler

March 22, 2021 The main feature of note this afternoon is a low pressure system diving southward into the Great Basin.  Light showers have spread over Nevada and Utah.  The Sierra Nevada is essentially the dividing line between that low in the interior west and upper level high pressure over the eastern Pacific.  Light showers…

March 22, 2021 California is on the eastern periphery of a large high in the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere.  It covers the eastern Pacific with a ridge building northward into the Gulf of Alaska.  Storm systems will move down the eastern  edge of the high through the Pacific Northwest then into the…

March 21, 2021 Today will be the first day of a prolonged period of dry and very pleasant spring weather for the valley.  A lingering weak trough of low pressure covers the southern half of California, resulting in a chance of a few showers over the high Sierra this afternoon.  The air mass in the…

March 20, 2021 Skies have cleared out this afternoon with the exception of Kern County where upslope clouds are being generated against the valley facing slopes of the Kern County mountains due to a northwest flow behind last night’s storm system.  A west to east oriented weak trough of low pressure will remain over the…

March 20, 2021 Last night  turned out to be a real soaker.  A secondary ripple of low pressure moved across the southern half of the valley overnight, enhancing the precipitation. Rainfall amounts from Fresno County southward were more than twice as much as the northern half of the valley. As of the time of this…

 March 18, 2021 The valley this afternoon is sliced into two weather segments.  The first segment is allowing filtered sunshine.  The temperature at Porterville has risen to 69 degrees as of 1:00  pm while Bakersfield has risen to 72 degrees.  Merced is in segment number two with a temperature of 55 with light rain falling. …

March 19, 2021 A weak cold front moved down the valley and is moving into the Kern County mountains at this hour.  Just very light amounts of precipitation fell with the front, however a cool, unstable air mass is following the front, resulting in a chance of light showers through this evening.  The freezing level…

 March 18, 2021 The first  bands of light showers are currently spreading onshore along the coast from Monterey County north.  Scattered light showers are also now moving into Merced County.  This activity will move slowly southward this evening ahead of a cold front just now moving into northern California.  The latest high resolution models are…

March 18, 2021 A west/southwest flow aloft continues to spread cloud cover in ahead of a low pressure system located off the northwest Oregon coast.  As the trough sags southward today through Friday into northern and central California, light showers will spread southward.  The main dynamics of this storm will remain well to our north. …

March 17, 2021 There is a big batch of clouds streaming in from the west/southwest underneath a low developing off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.  This flow is pumping in milder air.  In fact, temperatures this afternoon are running 5 to 6 degrees warmer than 24 hours ago, even in spite of the cloud…