Rain to clear by Friday

A storm that brought rain to the Carson Valley and snow to the Sierra will stick around through Thursday, but is expected to clear on Friday.

"On Thursday it should start to lift," said National Weather Service Meteorologist Dawn Fishler. "By Friday it should be totally out of here."

The storm dropped 4 inches of snow at Ebbetts Pass, according to telemetry maintained by the Natural Resources Conservation District. The snow had the equivalent of 2.1 inches of moisture.

Valley weather watchers reported nearly an inch of rain fell before 8 a.m. on Tuesday.

Sheridan Acres resident George Uebele said .67 inches of moisture fell at his home. Stan Kapler said he had a total of .79 inches of rain in Minden. More rain fell during the day on Tuesday.

A pair of low pressure systems merged over Western Nevada, forming a cutoff low.

"There's a lot of moisture wrapped into this, and that's what's keeping the clouds and rain showers over us," Fishler said.

She said the cutoff low occurs when a low pressure system separates from the surrounding atmosphere.

"Circulation from air flow is trapped in circulation without anything to the west or east," she said. "The first low came off the Pacific from the south, and brought the thunderstorms on Saturday. At the same time, a low came digging in from the Northwest."

Lightning strikes set a few single-tree fires on the weekend, that were later extinguished by the deluge. There were also several brief power outages in the Valley on Monday.

This is the second year in a row that the first two weeks of fall have seen the weather go from record highs to cold and damp over the course of a week.

Minden came close to breaking a 95-degree record temperature for Sept. 30 that was set in 2009.

Not five days later, last year, the Douglas County seat was under a 4-inch blanket of snow.