St. Patrick’s Day Brings Gusty Winds Across the Coachella Valley

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Low pressure and a passing cold front will bring stronger winds, increasing clouds to the Coachella Valley today and tomorrow. Winds will be our biggest impact here locally today and Tuesday, increasing this afternoon with strongest winds likely around the mountains and desert areas.

Check out some of our peak winds as of 11pm:

There is a Wind Advisory across the Coachella Valley and Riverside/San Bernadino County Mountains in effect until 11am tomorrow. We could see west winds 25-35, with gusts up to 50mph, some isolated locations could even see possible gusts up to 60mph.

There is an Air Quality Alert/Wind Blown Dust Advisory across the Coachella Valley as well. Most problematic air quality will be around spots that have received little to no recent rainfall.

We've had periods of hazardous air quality this evening. Here's a look at our AQI levels at 11pm:

There are some light showers possible this evening with a quick passing front from the coast to the mountains, but deserts are expected to remain dry. Not much moisture with this system, so coastal areas and mountains are only looking at real minimal precipitation, less than 0.10"--if that. Mountains could see maybe up to 1" of snow as snow levels drop from 7,000 to 4,500-5,000' tonight.

High pressure returns back to the mix Tuesday and Wednesday following the passing trough, leading to a little bit of a warming trend into mid-week. Offshore flow also sets up late tomorrow and Wednesday, so we can expect winds to remain elevated for the next few days.

We'll see a more significant warmup as higher pressure builds next weekend.