Weather Whiplash!,

Snow and winter temps will turn to abnormal heat by weekend

Snow, temperatures in the teens and winds approaching hurricane force on Sierra ridges will give way to temperatures that are 10 to 15 degrees above normal, with Bishop seeing 90-plus-degrees

and Mammoth seeing temperatures in the 70s.

The weather whiplash won’t likely end this week, either, with another round of cold and perhaps even snow due later this month.

That said, the abnormally strong winds that have characterized so much of this spring may finally be set to exit the state, according to Howard Sheckter, Mammoth’s forecaster. “It has been extra windy this spring due to La Nina,” he said. “Once this spring is over, the northwest jet will be a lot weaker. The northwest jet is associated with La Nina and that is where we get the wind like we have been seeing the past few weeks but once the summer pattern sets in later this month and into June the jet will retreat and that should leave us with less wind, although still dry and warm.”

He said the summer looks like it is going to be warmer than usual, although there are signals for a monsoon pattern that could give the Eastern Sierra some wetting rains. The monsoon pattern for the desert Southwest can be a double-edged sword for the Sierra; if the rains arrive with only lightning, it can be devastating in terms of sparking new fires. But if the monsoons arrive with wetting rains, the Eastern Sierra can avoid the worst impacts, which is what happened last summer in large part.

Sheckter hopes for that pattern to repeat itself so any fire that does start is followed by rain, but it is still too soon to know which type of monsoon pattern will affect the Sierra, he said. The forecast at the time is for a significant monsoon season, he said.

The one thing that does seem clear, he said, is La Nina is sticking around for an almost unprecedented third year, triggering another warmer than normal summer. Once fall arrives, however, he sees a real possibility for a wetter than normal winter.

“I am looking forward to this La Nina breaking, but it looks like it will break only in the fall,” he said. “If it does, it can turn pretty wet.”