Active Weather Tuesday & early Wednesday
Monday was a break in the action from this weekend and the rain/snow that fell on Kern County. But the break still features plenty of clouds- and will be very brief. That's because our next weather maker is wasting no time in spinning down the coast from just west of Seattle to a position very close to Bakersfield late Tuesday evening. This tightly wound rather small low pressure system is the result of a split flow pattern over the eastern Pacific in which the polar jet stream flows north into Canada and the subtropical jet stream flows into Mexico. Little eddies in the flow sometime develop (as is the case with Tuesday's storm) that trail southward from the polar jet until they are picked up by the subtropical jet. Tuesday's low will provide low snow levels starting around 4,000 feet Tuesday morning but falling to as low as 2,500 feet by late Tuesday into Wednesday morning. A Winter Storm WATCH has been posted for the Kern County mountains Tuesday through Wednesday at 10 AM. I'm expecting 4-8 inches of snow to fall above 3,500 feet, which will obviously affect both the Grapevine and Tehachapi. Snow will become a problem during the evening on Tuesday, especially within and around heavy showers. Those conditions are forecast to persist through early Wednesday morning, potentially hampering travel over passes. In the south valley, there will be showers lingering through Tuesday evening into early Wednesday morning. But thereafter, computer models are painting a drier picture. It will remain cool until Friday, but the big holiday weekend appears dry and seasonal. High pressure builds in for next week with no rain in the forecast through next Thursday.
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02-08-10 6:08 pm Chief Meteorologist MILES MUZIO
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