Weather Alerts for California

Recent Locations: Anaheim, CA

1. Air Quality Alert for: Imperial County Southwest; Chuckwalla Mountains; Imperial County Southeast; Imperial County West; Imperial Valley

2. Cold Weather Advisory for: East Bay Hills

3. Cold Weather Advisory for: Mariposa-Madera Lower Sierra; Fresno-Tulare Lower Sierra; South End of the Lower Sierra; Yosemite NP outside of the valley; San Joaquin River Canyon; Upper San Joaquin River; Kaiser to Rodgers Ridge; Kings Canyon NP; Grant Grove Area; Sequoia NP; South End of the Upper Sierra

4. Cold Weather Advisory for: North Bay Interior Mountains; North Bay Interior Valleys; East Bay Interior Valleys; Santa Clara Valley Including San Jose; Northern Salinas Valley/Hollister Valley and Carmel Valley

5. Cold Weather Advisory for: Western Plumas County/Lassen Park; West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada

6. Cold Weather Advisory for: Yosemite Valley

7. Extreme Cold Warning for: Eastern Santa Clara Hills; Southern Salinas Valley/Arroyo Seco and Lake San Antonio; Santa Lucia Mountains and Los Padres National Forest; Mountains Of San Benito County And Interior Monterey County Including Pinnacles National Park

8. Freeze Warning for: Cuyama Valley; Western Antelope Valley Foothills; Eastern Antelope Valley Foothills

9. Freeze Warning for: Los Banos - Dos Palos; Merced - Madera - Mendota; Planada - Le Grand - Snelling; Coalinga - Avenal; West Side of Fresno and Kings Counties; Caruthers - San Joaquin - Selma; Fresno-Clovis; Buttonwillow - Lost Hills - I5; Delano-Wasco-Shafter; Hanford - Corcoran - Lemoore; Visalia - Porterville - Reedley; Bakersfield; Southeast San Joaquin Valley; South End San Joaquin Valley

10. Frost Advisory for: Santa Clarita Valley; Ojai Valley; Central Ventura County Valleys; Calabasas and Agoura Hills; Western San Fernando Valley; Southeastern Ventura County Valleys; Santa Susana Mountains

11. High Wind Warning for: Coastal Del Norte

12. High Wind Warning for: Del Norte Interior; Southwestern Humboldt; Northern Humboldt Interior; Southern Humboldt Interior

13. Hydrologic Outlook for: Siskiyou, CA; Coos, OR; Curry, OR; Josephine, OR

14. Wind Advisory for: Central Siskiyou County

15. Wind Advisory for: Mendocino Coast; Northwestern Mendocino Interior; Southwestern Mendocino Interior

16. Wind Advisory for: Northern Humboldt Coast

17. Winter Storm Warning for: Northern Trinity

18. Winter Storm Warning for: Western Siskiyou County; South Central Siskiyou County; North Central and Southeast Siskiyou County

Want more detail? Get the Complete 7 Day and Night Detailed Forecast!

Current U.S. National Radar--Current

The Current National Weather Radar is shown below with a UTC Time (subtract 5 hours from UTC to get Eastern Time).

National Weather Forecast--Current

The Current National Weather Forecast and National Weather Map are shown below.

National Weather Forecast for Tomorrow

Tomorrow National Weather Forecast and Tomorrow National Weather Map are show below.

North America Water Vapor (Moisture)

This map shows recent moisture content over North America. Bright and colored areas show high moisture (ie, clouds); brown indicates very little moisture present; black indicates no moisture.

Weather Topic: What is Precipitation?

Home - Education - Precipitation - Precipitation

Next Topic: Rain

Precipitation can refer to many different forms of water that may fall from clouds. Precipitation occurs after a cloud has become saturated to the point where its water particles are more dense than the air below the cloud.

In most cases, precipitation will reach the ground, but it is not uncommon for precipitation to evaporate before it reaches the earth's surface. When precipitation evaporates before it contacts the ground it is called Virga. Graupel, hail, sleet, rain, drizzle, and snow are forms of precipitation, but fog and mist are not considered precipitation because the water vapor which constitutes them isn't dense enough to fall to the ground.

Next Topic: Rain

Weather Topic: What are Shelf Clouds?

Home - Education - Cloud Types - Shelf Clouds

Shelf Clouds Next Topic: Sleet

A shelf cloud is similar to a wall cloud, but forms at the front of a storm cloud, instead of at the rear, where wall clouds form.

A shelf cloud is caused by a series of events set into motion by the advancing storm; first, cool air settles along the ground where precipitation has just fallen. As the cool air is brought in, the warmer air is displaced, and rises above it, because it is less dense. When the warmer air reaches the bottom of the storm cloud, it begins to cool again, and the resulting condensation is a visible shelf cloud.

Next Topic: Sleet