Climate of Reno, Nevada. NOAA Technical Memorandum, NWS WR-276

摘要

Reno is located in far-west central Nevada in the lee of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Reno is on the boundary between two distinct climatic regimes. The first regime is the dry high desert climate of the western Great Basin. The second regime is that of the alpine Sierra Nevada. Both regimes greatly influence Renos climate. As a result of its location in the high desert of the Great Basin, Reno experiences large temperature ranges on both a diurnal and an annual scale. During the summer afternoon highs are often above 90 degrees F, but at night the air mass can cool down into the 50s. In the last five or six years however, nighttime lows during July and early August sometimes do not make it below 65 degrees F. As will be seen in the tables in the Temperature section below, this warming trend has been seen in summer high temperatures, but not to the extent that it is reflected in the nighttime temperatures. These conditions may be due to an urban heat island effect. Since the early 1940s the official observation site for Reno has been the airport. When the airport became the official observation site on September 1, 1942 the airport was a few miles southeast of town in a rural area. There was a noticeable cooling in the average temperatures during the 1940s from what had been seen during the 1930s when the observation site was downtown. Average temperatures have shown a gradual warming trend over the decades. This consistent warming may be due to the fact that the city of Reno has grown in area and now surrounds the airport. The weather observation site is now in an urban area, and thus the air mass (especially during summer) has a more difficult time cooling down at night. This warming has not been seen as much during the winter as daytime highs are usually in the 40s to lower 50s, and nighttime lows in the 30s. These winter readings have been fairly consistent throughout the decades without showing any appreciable trends.