More wet weather for Porterville

Porterville can expect more rain before the week is out, but not much of it, say meteorologists for the National Weather Service in Hanford.

“Rain is going to develop again, possibly Tuesday,” said NWS meteorologist Modesto Vasquez. “Probably Porterville won’t get that much.”

The midweek storm will be concentrated in the north, dropping most of its moisture no further south than Kings Canyon, he said.

The gray skies and scattered showers will be noticeably different than the trio of storms that made their way through the Valley, tapering off Sunday night after delivering significant rainfall.

“We had a large storm system that brought plenty of rainfall, especially to the Sierra and foothills,” Vasquez said.

Locally, weather watcher Greg Chadwell reported Porterville received more than a quarter of an inch of rain through Sunday afternoon, bringing the season total to 0.88 inches since June. For December, Porterville has seen 0.15 inches of precipitation, an improvement over last year’s dry Christmas season.

“Last year, we didn’t get any in December,” Chadwell said.

The system of storms that ended over the weekend were unseasonably warm, with daytime highs in the 60s, meaning no snowpack so far in the Sierra.

“I went to Camp Nelson on Friday about 1 p.m. It was wet, but no snow,” said Chadwell.

“I’m pretty sure they’ll get snow tonight [Sunday].”

While the storm now bearing down on the state will be somewhat cooler, it may not be cold enough for snow.

“This is going to cool a little bit, but not terribly cold,” Vasquez said.

With the threat of rain on Tuesday night into Wednesday we can expect a drop of only one or two degrees, he said. Skies will remain cloudy, and a weak high pressure system is forming over the Valley.

“It may be a concern for patchy fog in the Valley,” Vasquez said.

Contact Dave Adalian at 784-5000, Ext. 1043.