Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Sacramento CA
250 AM PDT Fri May 17 2024
SYNOPSIS...
Seasonably warm weather continues through the weekend. Mostly
sunny and dry conditions persist with periodically breezy winds
Isolated shower or thunderstorm chances over the High Sierra south
of Interstate 80 Saturday afternoon.
.DISCUSSION
...
Skies remain clear across interior NorCal other than an area of
coastal stratus extending inland from the Delta into the southern
Sacramento Valley as the marine layer has deepened to around 2-3k
ft along the coast. Surface pressure gradient continues to trend
onshore and southwesterly gusts of 30-35 mph persist in the west
Delta, and local southerly gusts of 15-25 mph in the Sacramento
region.
Warm and dry weather will continue into next week as high pressure
gradually weakens over the area as short-wave energy passes to the
north. Temperatures will be close to average for mid-May and some
areas of late-night and morning stratus will be possible in the
Central Valley through the weekend. Isolated late-day showers and
thunderstorms will be possible in the Sierra south of Lake Tahoe
on Saturday, but the pattern is favorable for any storms that do
develop to quickly move east of the crest.
.EXTENDED DISCUSSION
(Tuesday THROUGH Friday)...
Interior NorCal Tuesday sandwiched between EPAC upper ridge to
the west and upper troughing moving through the PacNW. Upper
troughing gradually increases over the CWA through the remainder
of the week resulting in a downward trend in high temperatures.
Some model differences towards the end of the week lead to
forecast uncertainty with any precip chances. For now forecast
remains dry with highs returning to near normal by Friday.
