Memorial Day weekend is upon us. It's known as the unofficial start summer but around the Bay Area recently, you might think you stepped into a time machine and landed smack dab in the middle of winter.
Our wild, weird May continues today with what may be the crescendo to our late spring rainy season in the form of thundershowers and heavy Sierra snow.
Due to the very chilly air above and some potent spring time sunshine, this will be a favorable environment for generating some isolated thundershowers during the day. In fact, even without the aid of daytime heating we saw some thundershowers forming offshore before dawn.
Upper level winds may will make conditions just right at times for some rotating, stronger thunderstorms later during the day -- mainly for areas in the North Bay, Delta and Central Valley. Stronger storms will produce frequent lightning and hail.
A funnel cloud was spotted on Wednesday near Santa Rosa Airport surprised many but today's environment is actually more favorable for the phenomenon so we may hear about more funnel clouds sightings.
It might be a good time for some spring skiing. Really, really late spring skiing. Sierra snow levels will be unusually low -- near the 4,500-5,000 ft. range and locally lower "thundersnow" cells. These convective-based showers bring lightning and bursts of heavy snow, a possibility for the Sierra until the early evening.
We'll be stepping out of that weather time warp by next week, though. Fans of drier, quieter weather take solace in our Friday and weekend forecast. Aside from a few early morning showers on Friday, we'll see clearing skies and a much warmer and dry weekend ahead.
