Author: Trudy Hibler

Christmas Day, 2017 Summary: Embedded within a westerly flow aloft are high clouds.  There have been gaps between cloud bands which allowed temperatures last night to fall into the low to mid 30s.  in fact, east Porterville dropped to 29 as did Strathmore.  Those were the coldest locations I could find as of 6:00am.  Models…

Summary: A veil of high clouds based above 20,000 feet continues to stream over northern and central California.  From the Tehachapi Mountains southward, skies are largely clear.  These high clouds continue to overrun a ridge of upper level  high pressure located just off shore and are projected by models to continue to do so through …

Summary: A veil of high clouds based above 20,000 feet continues to stream over northern and central California.  It certainly helped last night as just about all frost stations were in the mid 30s as of 6:00am.  Model information this Christmas Eve shows the high will remain anchored off shore with a westerly flow riding…

Summary: Skies are mostly clear over the southern 2/3 of the valley this afternoon with mid and high-level clouds from Fresno County northward.  These clouds continue to move over the top of strong high pressure off shore then slide southeastward along the eastern rim of the high.  They eventually dissipate over the Desert Southwest.  This…

Summary: Considerable amounts of high, mainly thin, clouds are streaming in, overrunning a strong ridge of upper level high pressure located off shore.  Even with the high clouds, temperatures in the coldest locations dipped into the upper 20s last night with widespread lower 30s.   The off shore ridge will remain along the west coast…

December 22, 2017 Summary: Temperatures this afternoon are anywhere from 2 to 6 degrees warmer than yesterday at this time while dew points are roughly the same, generally in the low to mid 30s.  The exception is Kern County where the dew points at some locations are in the upper 20s.  A large upper high…

December 22, 2017 Summary: It was a cold one last night.  many locations as of 6:00am were in the mid 20s and no doubt  there were unprotected locations out there in low lying areas that hit 21 to 22 or so.  More in the frost discussion below.   Upper level high pressure is off shore…

December 21, 2017 Summary:The following is temperatures recorded between 9:45 and 10:15 this evening.  Madera 30, Sanger 30, Navelencia 30 but had fallen to 27, Lindcove 30, Exeter 29, West Lindsay 30, east Lindsay 30, Strathmore 29, both west and east Porterville 29.  The coldest unprotected areas this evening were at or below freezing as…

December 21, 2017 Summary: Temperatures are 1 to 5 degrees colder this afternoon than 24 hours ago.  Dew points are down 5 to 12 degrees.  A cold pool of dry air has now settled to the bottom of the bathtub, setting the stage for a strong radiational cooling event tonight.  Low to mid 20s appear…

Summary: The time could not be more appropriate to issue in the coldest air mass of the season so far.  Winter officially begins at 8:28 this morning, so here we are with the longest nights of the year.   The low pressure system which resulted in scant amounts of precipitation at most locations yesterday has…