Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS San Joaquin Valley, CA
Issued by NWS San Joaquin Valley, CA
772 FXUS66 KHNX 020913 AFDHNX Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Hanford CA 213 AM PDT Thu May 2 2024 .KEY MESSAGES... 1. Warming conditions are will take place today and Friday with highs rising to 3 to 7 degrees above normal on Friday. 2. A weekend storm system will likely bring snowfall to the Sierra Nevada and rainfall to the San Joaquin Valley and Sierra foothills as well as breezy to windy conditions across the mountains and deserts. 3. High temperatures are forecast to cool to around 10 to 15 degrees below normal by Sunday. 4. Dry weather and a warming trend will take place Monday through Wednesday. && .DISCUSSION...The upper ridge that has been situated off the CA coast for the past few days is progged to shift inland today and Friday resulting in a warming trend across our area with slightly above normal readings today and even warmer readings on Friday. Latest NBM probabilistic guidance is indicating between a 30 and 50 percent PoE of 85 DEG F in the San Joaquin Valley from Fresno southward on Friday. Meanwhile, a large upper low pressure system is progged to drop southeast out of the Gulf of AK on Friday and move into the PAC NW and Norcal by Saturday. This will result in much cooler temperatures and breezy to windy conditions prevailing across the mountains and deserts over the weekend. It will also bring possible precipitation to the area on Saturday and Saturday night. Snow levels are progged to be above 8000 feet at the onset of precipitation on Satruday and will lower to 6000 to 7000 feet by Saturday evening and to 5000 to 6000 feet by the time the precipitation tapers off by Sunday morning. QPF is trending higher with the weekend system with a quarter to three quarters of an inch of rainfall now progged for the SR 99 corridor and eastward north of Kern County in the San Joaquin Valley. Much of the Sierra foothills is progged to pick up between half an inch to an inch of rainfall while 1 to 2 inches of liquid precipitation is progged for the higher Sierra Nevada Satruday and Saturday night. There will also be enough instability for isolated thunderstorms from Kings Canyon northward in the Sierra Nevada and adjacent foothills Satruday afternoon and evening. Sunday is expected to be an unseasonably cool day for our area as the large upper low moves to the east of our area and a modified polar airmass moves into our area behind it. High temperatures on Sunday will be 10 to 15 DEG F below normal on Sunday with NBM probabilistic guidance indicating a 50 to 75 percent chance of high temperatures below 70 DEG F across most of the San Joaquin Valley. Medium range progs are showing good ensemble agreement and are indicating a slow wamring trend taking place across our area between Monday and Wednesday with temperatures recovering to near climatological normals by Wednesday and dry weather prevailing across our area Monday through Wednesday. && .AVIATION...VFR conditions will prevail across the central CA interior for at least the next 24 hours. && .AIR QUALITY ISSUES...None. && .CERTAINTY... The level of certainty for days 1 and 2 is high. The level of certainty for days 3 through 7 is medium. Certainty levels include low...medium...and high. Please visit www.weather.gov/hnx/certainty.html for additional information and/or to provide feedback. && .HNX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...None. && $$ DAS weather.gov/hanford