After a brief reprieve, here we go again with another heatwave. High pressure is going to build over the region through the weekend causing high temperatures to climb.

Highs in the 80s through Friday and then the 90s for the weekend. A little cooler on the lake but not much, only a few degrees likely. Well above average for the Sierra. Even the upper mountains could be in the 80s with 70s for the highest elevations.

Typical afternoon winds from the southwest are expected each day with gusts of 15-20+ mph on the lake. That usually creates choppy conditions on the lake away from the west shore. For the mountain peaks, gusts of 20-30+ mph possible each day and even stronger possibly for Thursday with gusts up to 50+ mph.

Afternoon thunderstorm chances increase Friday through the weekend, but the chances look lower than last weekend with less moisture available. Most of the forecast models show a chance for scattered thunderstorms but with low total precip totals for the Sierra through next Tuesday.

You can get the hourly lightning, wind, & precip forecasts on OpenSummit, as well as forecast maps including our new lightning maps!

For early next week, the temperatures may cool a few degrees, but the hot and sunny weather is expected to continue with highs in the 80s at lake level. Summer is in full effect for now.

The heat is continuing to dry things out. The Sugar Fire north of the Tahoe Basin blew up this week and could bring some smokey air. You can use the OpenSummit smoke maps to see where smoke is and forecast to be over the next 24 hours!

I will be posting weekly updates on Wednesdays throughout the rest of the summer. Be sure to be using OpenSummit for your summer mountain weather. We have lots of new location points and map overlays including smoke and lightning maps, as well as offline maps when you're out of range. We will be adding more features throughout the summer!

Stay tuned & stay cool!...BA