Expect rain or snow by afternoon

After a relatively warm Friday that saw much of Carson's snow melt off, tonight could be time to batten down the hatches again.

Winds are expected to pick up this evening and the snow level should drop to 5,000 feet -- about 300 hundred feet above the level of downtown.

"It's a cold front that's well off the California coast right now," said Ray Collins, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno Friday evening.

"We are looking for 2 to 4 inches of snow in the Carson City area (tonight) with as much as 8 in the foot hills. That would be kind of an extreme but if you get 2 to 4 in the Carson area, that can make a mess of things."

Things are totally under control with the city's Streets and Storm Drainage department, however.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing," said operations chief Marnell Heinz when asked if the warm spell had caused any flooding.

"Actually they predicted a little more than what's going on," he said. "This one has kind petered out a little bit. I think it's going to be the same way with the next one. If you look at the jet stream it looks like it's going to get pulled farther north up toward the Oregon border."

The department is ready for flooding if it becomes an issue. Heinz described sand bags and "a mountain of sand" available for free at the city lot at 3303 Butti Way.

It looks like more of the same predicted for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and New Year's Day: Cloudy with a chance of showers. Low temperatures are expected to be in the low 20s while highs should be around the mid 30s or up into the 40s.

"It doesn't look too bad at all," said Collins at the weather service. "Not too bad at all."

Information

For highway conditions, call (877) 687-6237

or go online at: www.nvroads.com

or, on the radio, in Carson City tune into to 1610 am or in Reno or Lake Tahoe, tune in to 530 am.

Nation Weather Service on the net: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/Reno/