Clear skies ahead for Valley as storm front moves east, but cooler days linger
A Pacific storm front moving out of the central San Joaquin Valley Thursday left behind clear skies for the weekend, along with cooler-than-normal temperatures, said forecasters at the National Weather Service in Hanford.
The region was expected to gain a respite for more than a week from the series of atmospheric rivers that dumped record rain and snow locally, according to Carlos Molina, a meteorologist with the weather service. He said the only storm front in long-term forecasts is not expected to approach the West Coast until April 8, and that one may veer north.
“Right now, there’s a lot of uncertainty” about the front’s direction, Molina said. “But probably the Pacific Northwest.”
Molina added that the the Yosemite region may receive a dusting of snow Monday, but no rainfall is expected in the Valley.
Whopping rainfall totals
The front clearing the Valley early Thursday left behind .12 of an inch of rainfall in Fresno, bringing the seasonal total, calibrated from Oct.. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023 o 17.44 inches, a whopping 192% of normal. It dropped just .01 inches in Merced, but left the north valley city with a seasonal total of 19.84 inches, 202% of normal. Figures for Hanford were .12 inches, 14.44 inches and 211%.
Daytime high temperatures will be in the high 50s or low 60s for the next week because of the lingering effects of the cold air mass that carried the most recent storm into the Valley, said Molina.
Gradually rising temperatures
“There’s nothing really to push it out (of the Valley),” he said, but it should be breaking up in the next four of five days. He added temperatures would then rise to the mid 60s.
“The trend is to keep warming up,” said Molina.
By the second week in April the thermometer might approach 70 degrees.
Next weather challenge
That’s when the region will confront its next weather challenge: the massive Sierra snowpack waiting to melt. Molina said that process will begin in earnest when temperatures reach the high 70s.