Sunday AM Update:

As I was writing the weekend forecast early Friday morning the Washburn fire down in Yosemite National Park was exploding in size. That has changed the smoke and air quality forecast section below, but all the better reason to stay up to date using our app and maps page to track on your own.

As of Sunday morning, smoke from the fire is streaming north into the Tahoe Basin and could do so in varying amounts over the next few days.

Outside of the increase in smoke and bad air quality Sunday into the week ahead, no changes to the forecast. We will watch for increasing chances for moisture later in the week.

From Friday Early AM:

We have been seeing cool troughs move in almost every weekend for the last several weeks. That brought cooler weather and gusty winds along with some showers. This weekend we have a departing trough with warming temperatures.

Friday-Saturday Cool Start & Breezy:

We start cool on Friday into Saturday with highs only in the 70s at lake level. Temperatures cool around 3-5 degrees for every 1000 ft. you go up in elevations. We could see gusty south-southwest winds over the mountain tops both days up to 40+ mph and gusty afternoon winds up to 20+ mph on the lake bring choppy conditions both days.

Lighter Winds & Warming Starting Sunday:

Sunday into next week the winds should be lighter and we should warm into the 80s at lake level as high pressure continues to build over the region.

Next Chance for Showers:

The warm and dry weather should extend through mid-week. The latest forecast model runs suggest the next chance for afternoon showers to develop is Thursday-Friday. That is where the light precip amounts come from on the 7-day precipitation forecasts.

Fires & Smoke:

We had another fire ignite to the southwest of the Tahoe Basin this week. The Electra Fire is up to 4200+ acres burned but is now 60%+ contained as of Friday morning. Our latest Smoke Map shows the smoke moving north and staying to our west as of Friday morning.

Our latest Air Quality Index Map shows some unhealthy air still lingering over the basin Friday morning.

We can see some haze over the lake from the Homewood Cam this morning.

Our AQI Forecast Map shows most of the smoke and bad air quality staying over the fire as it comes more under control over the weekend (hopefully).

If we see gusty southwest winds and the fire activity increases we could see some more smoke and bad air quality over the weekend. You can use our maps above to check on the conditions.

We are also developing more features through the summer that will be launching soon!

Stay tuned...BA