Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Elko, NV
Issued by NWS Elko, NV
112 FXUS65 KLKN 222046 AFDLKN Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Elko NV 1246 PM PST Fri Nov 22 2024 .SYNOPSIS... Precipitation will overspread Northern and Central Nevada tonight. Periods of precipitation are expected Saturday through Sunday morning. The majority of this precipitation will fall Saturday. Snow levels will start at around 7,000 feet tonight, before dropping to the valley floor Saturday evening. Additional precipitation is expected early next week. && .SHORT TERM...Tonight through Saturday night A trough of low pressure will approach Western Nevada tonight. Precipitation ahead of this trough of low pressure will overspread Northern and Central Nevada from west to east tonight. The trough of low pressure will slowly move eastward across the Silver State Saturday and Saturday night, resulting in periods of precipitation. Most of this precipitation will fall Saturday. Snow levels will begin at about 7,000 feet tonight, prior to dropping to the valley floor Saturday evening. Travel impacts will be minor as no more than two to four inches of snow is expected over passes and summits along Highway 50, east of Eureka Saturday evening and Saturday night. Farther north, only an inch or less of snow is expected over most passes and summits in Northern Nevada Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. Here are probabilities of one inch or more of snow at select locations in Northern and Central Nevada from 10 AM PST Saturday, November 23rd, 2024 until 10 AM PST Sunday, November 24th, 2024: Ruth - 49% Ely - 40% Austin - 39% McGill - 38% Eureka -37% Owyhee - 27% Lamoille - 25% Spring Creek - 10% Elko - 4% .LONG TERM...Sunday through next Friday Sunday and most of Monday will be a break in the action, as the leading storm system will be on out of the silver state, while a stronger system will be on its way into the Silver state to start Thanksgiving week. For northern Nevada Sunday will be partly cloudy and cool, for central NV ongoing showers will be coming to an end by early Monday morning with mostly cloudy skies through the day Monday. This brief break will be due a quick moving shortwave ridge. Precipitation chances during this time will drop to near 10% but by Monday evening will be on the way back up to 30% to near 70% by midnight Tuesday. This second stronger system will push through the region Tuesday into Wednesday, model timing differences still exist for this next system as the GFS is a bit slower on exit of this system by about 18 hours, than the EC as it shows precipitation ending for central NV by early Thursday, while the EC exits the system on Wednesday morning. As for sensible impacts with this system it will depend on the location of the surface boundary as models remain a bit cold favoring more lower elevation snow at this time. Current thinking is that colder air will be late to the party as upper flow will remain out of the SW longer than the models show, delaying colder airs arrival. For the valleys, rain still will transition to snow but this transition will be delayed until Wednesday morning limiting snow accumulations to about 1 inch by precipitations end, while over all liquid equivalent will run about 0.05 to up to 0.50. For the passes and roadway summits QPF will run about 0.25 to 1, with about 1 to 3 of that liquid being snow. Mountain ranges will see mostly snowfall with amounts running about 4 to 10. Upper level ridging will begin to work into the region for Thanksgiving evening bringing quieter conditions that should last through Saturday. Temperatures will be on a cooling trend through the period as highs start in the upper 30s to upper 40s Sunday, highs with the precipitation and cloud cover will cool into the low 30s to low 40s through next Friday. Overnight lows will start in the low 30s to low 40s, dropping into the single digits to upper teens Thursday morning. Winds will be light to breezy for the long term as winds will be shifting from the west to NW at 10 to 25 MPH with gusts up to 35 MPH possible. && .AVIATION... VFR conditions are forecast to be the primary flight conditions with increasing clouds through Saturday morning. CIGs lower By Saturday evening as the lead shortwave in a series of upper level troughs will beginning to influence the state, with VCSH to -SHRA impacting KWMC and KBAM by Saturday afternoon and KEKO by late Saturday evening. Winds will be picking up Friday evening and Saturday out of the SW at 10 to 25 KT with gusts to 35 KT possible. && .LKN Watches/Warnings/Advisories... None. && $$ 87/98/98