Weather

You'll want to have your sunglasses handy and will probably want to make plans to take advantage of what looks like the most comfortable day ahead in your extended forecast. High pressure off the coast in the Pacific is continuing to be the dominant driver in our weather pattern, and will leave us sunny, warm and dry Thursday. Winds will be lighter through the day for the majority of our region, but gusts up to 35mph out of the northeast will still be possible across the Sierra. Skies are clear and temperatures are very mild for the start of your Thursday morning. Valley areas are in the 40's to 50's, most foothill areas are starting out in the 40's, and we're mostly ranging from the teens to 20's in our mountain zones. We'll have sunny skies across our entire region today, but may have a thin cloud or two pass through mid day. Winds will be out of the north to around 15mph for most of northern California Thursday. High temperatures will climb into the mid 60's to lower 70's in the valley, lower 50's to mid 60's in the foothills, lower 40's to mid 50's in the Sierra and 50's to lower 60's in the Northern Mountains Thursday afternoon. We'll continue to have clear skies and lighter winds into Thursday evening. This will likely result in a fairly quick drop in temperatures after sunset and colder overnight low temperatures Friday morning.

Projections are leaving us with colder overnight low temperatures for the start of your Friday. Odds are pretty good you'll be wanting your jacket for your way out the door for the last day of your work week. Valley and foothill areas are expected to dip into the 30's to low 40's, and mountain areas will mostly start out in the teens to 20's early Friday. We'll have some thin clouds tracking south across our region and a decent drop in projected high temperatures as the ridge off the coast begins to break down, and a cooler system tracks into the Pacific Northwest. We'll be staying dry through the day on Friday, but we'll have thin clouds overhead. Mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies can be expected on Friday. High temperatures are projected to climb into the lower 60's in the valley, 40's to upper 50's in the foothills and Northern Mountains, and 40's to lower 50's in the Sierra Friday afternoon. We'll have similar conditions to Friday on Saturday, but could have a drop of 2 to 3 degrees in our high temperatures. That puts valley areas in the mid 50's to low 60's, foothill areas in the 40's to lower 50's, and mountain areas in the 40's on Saturday afternoon. We'll stay sunny to mostly sunny on Saturday. A weak wet system is projected to drop south from the Pacific Northwest and end up centered just to our east on Sunday. This will drive a bigger drop in temperatures, more cloud cover and the potential for showers across northern California on Sunday. The latest model projections are backing off on shower chances in areas of the valley along I-5, but are keeping a decent chance for showers from the eastern side of the valley through the Sierra. Redding now has a 20 percent chance for showers and Chico has a 70 percent chance of showers on Sunday. Chico could get up to around a half an inch of rainfall, and that's projected to be the highest total we get in our portion of the Sacramento valley. The bigger impact will be from snow in our higher elevations, and we do have the potential for up to around a foot of snow through the day in our mountain zones. There's even a chance for an inch or two of snowfall down into Paradise. Snow levels will mostly end up around or above 3000', but locally lower levels are possible in Butte County. Temperatures will start out in the 30's and top out in the upper 40's to mid 50's in the valley on Sunday. Foothill areas will start out in the 30's and top out in the 30's to 40's, and our mountain zones are projected to start out in the teens to 20's and end up in the 30's Sunday. That wet system will quickly track to the southeast of our region by late Sunday night into early Monday morning.

Longer range models are now keeping us cool, but have us drying out by early Monday. We'll have low temperatures that end up much colder across our region, and odds are good you'll need a more substantial jacket early Monday morning. Valley and foothill areas are projected to start out in the 20's to lower 30's, and our mountain zones will start out in the single digits to teens early Monday. High temperatures will be similar to a degree warmer than Sunday on Monday afternoon. We'll then have a drop of another degree or two in low temperatures early Tuesday, but high temperatures will end up a few degrees warmer than Monday's. Dry weather, partly cloudy skies chilly morning low temperatures and slightly below average daytime high temperatures are on the way for the middle of next week.