A BIG holiday greeting to everyone! It is Christmas Eve, with no snow in sight. Sorry. Santa will find his way to your house tonight, even though we may have areas of dense fog. And if skies clear long enough to cool things off, his sleigh will be sliding across your roof!
Monday’s rain and passing cold front will likely be the end of any active weather for some time. We went from cold to somewhat seasonal and now we will be in the dry doldrums. High pressure builds strongly over us. If this were July, I would say that our usual summer ridge of high pressure is upon us. It is very strong and I do not expect any more precipitation this year. If any does squeeze through, it would be very light.
Bad news for the mountains. The lower-elevation ski areas are closed and even at the higher ones like Timberline and Meadows, the snow is skimpy and rocks and stumps are peeking through.
Looking ahead to the first week of 2014, it looks dry and drier. Air stagnation is going to be a big problem locally in the coming weeks. It is still possible if the ridge of high pressure retrogrades westward that we could get some nice, clear and crisp cold weather form the north. But who knows when and if that will occur. Some forecast models keep popping up with the idea and then forgetting about it.
