Mammoth Lakes and Eastern Sierra Weather for Monday, August 16th, 2021 @ 12:19 PM

Here in the Eastern Sierra, we had a nice Friday/Saturday, however, on Sunday the smoke came back with some bad air quality.  Today into Tuesday expect more warm days with unhealthy smoke and haze.

Smoke and Haze: With AQI levels in the upper 100’s the air quality is unhealthful for all. I would advise you not to be outside with AQI’s in the stage 1 and 2 range at this time. A true n95 mask will help, but the cloth masks people are wearing these days do not prevent the PM2.5 crap from the wildfires from getting into your lungs.

The good news as far as air quality goes is as the week goes on we should start to see less smoke and haze moving into the area. I am hoping the upcoming pattern change will blow a lot of the smoke out of the Western USA.

With that said more than likely the Eastern Sierra is going to see waves of haze and smoke at times until at least mid Fall. It’s going to take the first snow and rains of the upcoming wet season to get these fires to start to die off.

Weather Synopsis: The ridge of high pressure that has been with us will hang on for one more day.  Then a low drops down to the east of the area bringing with it much cooler temperatures during the day and cooler overnight lows for all areas of the Eastern Sierra. This is a dry pattern and will bring with it lower humidity levels and dew points. Expect the local fire danger to be going up now as a result.

Temperatures: Highs through Tuesday will be in the mid-70s on Mammoth Mountain and up in the Mammoth Lakes Basin at the 9000-foot level. Mammoth Lakes will be in the upper 70s to low 80s with Bishop into the mid 100s. Expect a 7-10 degree drop in all areas by Thursday at the latest.

Here are the links to the local NWS Forecasts for Main Lodge & the Mammoth Lakes Basin, Mammoth Lakes, June Lake, Crowley Lake, and Bishop.

Extended Outlook: Around day 10 heights rise again, but not to the extent they have over the last few days.

Looking out towards Fall and into the Winter months, it’s looking dry and warm to start the Fall. Most of the models still are undecided on a neutral or weak La Nina winter at this point.

I posted the latest outlook from the ECMWF for October – December down the page a bit.

Current Smoke Map:

With all the fires burning in the western USA and up into Canada there is an area of smoke from Central California out to the Great Lakes right now.