Summer-like weather for the weekend; then winter returns

By Kathryn Reed

People were shedding their clothes Friday, with more of the same expected throughout the Lake Tahoe Basin this weekend.

While no records in the basin were set Friday, the National Weather Service says the best chance to set one in South Lake Tahoe will be Sunday. The forecast is for 73 degrees. The record of 71 degrees for April 22 was set in 2009.

It was 71 degrees in South Tahoe on April 20 – two degrees shy of the mark set three years ago.

On April 20, Reno tied the record of 84 that was set in 2009.

Truckee records are not likely to be broken. But temps will be in the upper 70s.

Shane Snyder, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno, explained that while the water temperature of Lake Tahoe is cold this time of year, Truckee’s air temps are higher than those in the basin.

“When the lake is cold, it keeps the land around it cold,” Snyder told Lake Tahoe News.

While the warm weather has lured people to the beach, gotten them on their bikes and doing other summer activities, they shouldn’t get used to it. The normal turbulent spring-winter weather fluctuations associated with April-May in Tahoe are alive and well.

A chance of showers is in the forecast for Monday, but a bigger storm could roll into the area Wednesday night through Thursday night.

“It will be cold and wet. We’re not done yet getting mountain precipitation,” Snyder said. “It will be snow at the lake.”