We are finally past the heat waves and with the rain and wind the last 2 days the air quality has greatly improved after a few days of very smoky conditions and poor air quality.

The Tamarack fire to our south is closing in on 70% containment and much less smoke that could drift into the area. A lot of the smoke we saw in the Tahoe basin earlier in the week was from the Dixie fire to our north. We had a few days of lighter and more variable wind directions that allowed the smoke to move in from the north.

The afternoon showers and stronger winds Monday into Tuesday helped to finally clear the air pretty well around the area. The Dixie fire is only 23% contained and could bring more smoke into the area, but for now, our smoke forecast maps keep the smoke to our north.

With low pressure to our west along the West Coast and high pressure to our east into the weekend, that will bring a southerly flow and monsoonal moisture northward from the Gulf of CA. 

High temperatures in the low to mid-80s through Friday at lake level, and upper 70s out over the colder lake waters. Cooler the higher in elevation you go as always.  You can always check the hourly mountain top forecasts on OpenSummit. Then cooler for the weekend with highs only in the 70s at lake level.

The latest model runs show quite a bit of moisture moving up from the south through Saturday. That could bring showers and thunderstorms each afternoon Thursday through Saturday, and then drier air works in Sunday into early next week. Here is a look at the total precip forecast through Tuesday.

We should see typically afternoon Zephry winds each day with southwest winds gusting 15-20+ mph over the lake. That brings choppier afternoon waters. You can always find the hourly wind forecasts on OpenSummit, here is a look at Friday for Homewood High and Dry Marina.

Variable winds from the north and east overnight each night could push some smoke into the area each night, but the afternoon winds and rain showers should clean up the air each day as they did on Monday and Tuesday.

If you are concerned about the air quality we just released our Air Quality Maps this week!

Drier weather is expected early next week with high temperatures warming back into the low 80s at lake level.

Stay tuned...BA

P.S. I'll be continuing the weekly Wednesday posts with your weekend weather through the end of the summer. We are working hard on the new features for OpenSummit and will be shifting gears towards new features for OpenSnow by the end of the summer!

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