Weather Update — October 2, 2026

Transcript

My friends…

Today is another stunner of a day on the Eastside, and I’m Noé from eastsideweather.com, here for MammothFM in the Eastern Sierra, coming atcha with your local weather report…

Our warm dry weather is here to stay, at least for the next 7-10 days. In my opinion, this ridge is setting up quite stubbornly, and our only chance of any precipitation for the next while is going to be if we get some remnant tropical moisture or if a monsoonal flow pattern develops. The ridge responsible for our warm and dry pattern will linger for most of the month in my opinion. In the short term, this will lead to heightened activity along the Dome Fire, which is burning at near 6000 acres and 40% containment. Shifting winds this weekend will bring patchy smoke impacts to the Eastside.

I’m sure everyone’s thinking about when winter will start, and what this ridge means for our coming winter. And even more than that, I’m sure everyone’s been hearing nonstop about our El Niño, so I figured it’s time I get into that a little bit. El Niño is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon where the waters in the tropical eastern Pacific warm. Depending on the strength of the warming, the climate can change quite dramatically all around the world. All other things being equal, strong and very strong El Niños in California are associated with wetter than average conditions, but El Niño does not guarantee a wet winter. And it is true that we will see the strongest El Niño on record this winter. So why am I not ready to forecast a wet winter in California yet?

Well, El Niño only writes a part of the story. It is true that the stronger the event, the more likely you are to see the so-called textbook response. However, other factors such as the Polar Vortex still have a significant role to play, and it’s too soon to say how those factors will shake out this winter. Personally, I’m waiting until November to issue my official winter outlook, so stay tuned for that!

And now, for the weather this weekend:

In Mammoth Lakes and surrounding areas: This weekend will be mostly sunny with the exception of Friday, which will feature a mix of high and low level clouds, with highs in the mid 70s, and lows in the low 50s. Patchy smoke can be expected at times, particularly Friday night into Saturday.

And now down to our friends in the Owens Valley.

Expect mostly sunny conditions this weekend, with the exception of Friday night, with highs near 90 and lows in the mid 50s.

This has been Noé for MammothFM in the eastern sierra. Join me over on eastsideweather.com where you can get a detailed weather forecast for anywhere in the eastern sierra, and read my longer range weather outlooks.