Spring off to a cool start in Carson City

A cloudy to partly sunny spring weekend, with a chance of showers at the end, is in store for Carson City and the region as winter recedes in the rearview mirror.

The National Weather Service in Reno said, however, the chance for precipitation won’t be sufficient to make much dent in dryness for any length of time, let alone in the long term drought.

“We do have a little, weak system for Sunday night and Monday morning,” said Tony Fuentes, meteorologist in the service’s Reno office after he was contacted by telephone. “It does provide a chance for some precipitation at higher elevations, but not enough.” He said next week should be warm and dry, with “nothing really potent on the horizon” then.

“We get most of our precipitation in the winter and now we’re slipping into spring,” Fuentes said about the time that slide into the Vernal Equinox occurred Friday afternoon. He said the region might get some shower activity through April, “but the bulk of the precipitation events are behind us.”

Snow melt is down markedly from normal and, without a spring snow storm, reports indicate annual runoff already has peaked.

The weekend forecast calls for partly sunny skies today with a high in the low 60s and westerly winds increasing late in the day toward 15 miles per hour, then mostly cloudy skies tonight. The low will head toward 35 and west winds will later decrease in the evening despite gusts up to 25 MPH.

Sunday’s forecast again is expected to be mostly sunny with a high in the low 60s, similar winds, but the weather service projects a 30 percent chance of showers after 11 p.m. and early Monday. That chance for showers drops to 20 percent during the day Monday, with partly sunny skies and a high in the mid 50s.

The service said Monday will be breezy and during that night the chance for showers will be just slight. Skies will again turn partly cloudy with the overnight low about 34. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the forecast calls for partly to mostly sunny skies during the day with highs near 60 and lows near freezing, but by Thursday it should be sunny with a high in the mid-60s.