Author: Trudy Hibler

December 17, 2021 After getting literally soaked over the past several days, a very moist layer of shallow air had no problem condensing into fog and low clouds overnight. Infrared satellite imagery shows the entire San Joaquin Valley covered with the wintertime soup. Most locations still have a visibility of a mile or more. Bakersfield…

December 16, 2021pm Doppler radar, as of 1:00 pm was still picking up on some showers along the Sierra Nevada foothills and along the foothills in Kern County. Otherwise, the precipitation is drawing to a close. Upper level high pressure is just  off shore and is beginning to ridge into the Pacific Northwest. By later…

December 16, 2021 A cold front associated with the latest system to affect California is moving through Fresno County at this hour with a band of precipitation. Once the front goes through, dry weather will return along with colder temperatures. The air mass behind the front is quite cold. In fact, most locations on the…

December 15, 2021pm Light showers have spread as far south as a San Francisco/Sacramento line as of the time of this writing. This is little changed from this morning. The front will be on the move again by this evening, spreading light showers down the valley, mainly north of Kern County. This system is much…

December 15, 2021 There are some rainfall amounts from this blockbuster winter storm in the rain discussion below. The center of circulation has accelerated eastward to a position over the Four Corners region. Much of the Midwest will be raked by high winds, rain or snow. Model information on this storm over the past week…

December 14, 2021pm It’s been quite a morning and early afternoon so far. It was fun watching an area of showers off the southern California coast blossom into a pineapple connection as heavy amounts of precipitation have been falling over the valley floor but more especially over the southern Sierra Nevada. I’ll start from the…

December 14, 2021 Precipitation is widespread over all of central California and much of southern California at this hour. The moisture field at the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere has finally overtaken the rain shadow which resulted in a mostly dry day yesterday. Precipitation will continue for much of the day then the…

December 13, 2021pm It’s a rare day to observe visible satellite imagery. There is a significant rain shadow across the central and south valley. If you look at the cloud patterns from above, you see wave clouds which are indicative of powerful winds aloft. Most locations on the valley floor have recorded less than .10…

December 13, 2021 Showers have spread as far south as Fresno and will work into the remainder of the valley over the next few hours. This storm will be coming inland in phases. Phase  2 will arrive tonight and Tuesday and will be the main event. The other challenge will be wind. Already this morning,…

December 12, 2021pm You  may remember that in late October we were talking about a blockbuster winter storm moving in and that many times forecast models have overestimated things like precipitation estimates. A similar situation exists today as a powerful winter storm is moving southward out of the Gulf of Alaska. Generally light precipitation has…