April Surprise

[kevin_standlee]

The weather turned cold and late-wintery in the past two days. I had to get the fire burning again and keep it burning overnight. The National Weather Service put out a storm advisory, with snow in the Sierra forecast and a slight chance of rain here in Fernley. Then things got slightly weird.



Winds got very wild yesterday. The strongest gusts were gale force, and the strong winds kicked up a huge amount of dust. When not watching tumbleweeds go tearing down the street, I looked to the north, where the dust made the mountains disappear.



Then it got worse, and Interstate 80, located around a kilometer north of our house, vanished.

Still, I thought, it can't be that bad, and I needed to get some milk and other perishables, so after lunch I drove over to Grocery Outlet. On my way there, the few drops of rain that I'd felt earlier got colder and more frozen, turning into snow, which was driven sideways by the high winds.



As near as I can tell, the worst of the snow fell while I was in the store, which was not that long. Air temperatures in Fernley were above freezing, so nothing would stick, although the mountains to the north (visible once again now that the worst of the storm had passed) had visible snow cover. Most of that snow melted soon thereafter, though.

The rest of this week is forecast to continue being below freezing overnight and slowly warming through the weekend. I'm not complaining. Any precipitation we can get is good. We need all the water we can get.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

According to news reports, Portland, Oregon got its first significant snowfall in April since they started keeping records. Between that and the hundred-degree summer weather, I wonder what weather god they managed to get mad.

[scott_sanford]

It was a great surprise to us, too! It came down gently but heavy and wet; ground temperatures were just above freezing even as the snow was coming down. Portland lost a surprising number of trees to the snow, and more of them than I would have expected came down onto streets. The snow started before dawn, was melting to slush even in the early morning sunlight, and was gone by afternoon.