Category: Forecast

Whenever drizzle begins to fall out of the fog and low cloud deck, you can bet mixing is taking place above. Two-one hundredths of an inch has been recorded over the past 24 hours at both Porterville and Visalia.  Currently, the visibility has improved at Bakersfield. They can see two and a half miles from…

Most locations yesterday saw a bit of hazy afternoon sunshine, but not all. Where it cleared, dense fog reformed overnight. In fact, every location from Bakersfield to Sacramento is reporting a visibility of ¼ mile or less, so it’s one of those days. The valley is simply capped by upper level high pressure aided by…

November 21, 2021 The balloon sounding above Vandenberg AFB this morning indicated a northeast flow from the surface to above 30.000 feet.  This is an ideal moderate Santa Ana wind configuration.  Currently at Sandberg up at 4,100 feet, winds are out of the east at 26 mph, ,gusting to 41. The difference in pressure between…

November 20, 2021 There is quite a bit of variability in conditions in this early morning hour.  Bakersfield was reporting a low overcast based at 3,100 feet, Porterville was overcast at 400 feet, Visalia was reporting ground fog with a visibility of ½ mile, Lemoore was overcast at 800 feet, and Madera was reporting a…

November 19, 2021 The fog this morning on the valley floor is rather chaotic and generally north of Kern County. A weak weather system is currently moving into northern California. Light showers have occurred as far south as Merced County, however the general flow in the upper atmosphere is out of the west so no…

November 17, 2021 The fog has finally lifted off the deck as all of the usual reporting stations are reporting visibilities between 3 and 6 miles.  Satellite imagery shows plenty of  low clouds between the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.  However, the weak trough of low pressure that passed through yesterday weakened the inversion enough…

November 16, 2021 A weak long wave trough of low pressure moved through overnight.  It was not potent enough to lift the fog and low clouds out of the Sacramento and San  Joaquin Valleys, but there was enough lift for somewhat better visibility this morning.  All locations between Bakersfield and Sacramento are reporting a visibility…

November 15, 2021 Higher level clouds are obscuring satellite imagery of the fog on the valley floor. Judging from automated weather stations, and observations from various sources, the fog is very widespread and is very dense.  Several observations peg the visibility at 50 yards.  Model information on days like today are useless as they don’t…

November 13, 2021 Infrared satellite imagery of California is quite telling.  Low clouds and fog literally fill the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys.  The only exception is the far southern portion of the valley.  However, when we put this satellite picture into motion, it clearly shows the fog heading south just to the east of…

November 12, 2021 Fog season is in full swing now.  Every location from Visalia to sacramento is reporting a visibility of ¼ mile or less.  In Kern County and parts of Tulare County, visibility is down to a mile or two.  A strong warm air inversion has the valley sealed up.  At 6:00AM at Sandberg…