We've been tracking rain late Thursday all week.
The question has been: will it impact the Bakersfield Christmas parade?
On Tuesday, it looked like it would.
However, we've seen a shift for the better, and most models now show a mostly dry Christmas parade!
It all comes down to the timing of the cold front moving into Kern.
Ahead of the cold front, south winds will create our typical valley rain shadow, and keep us mostly dry.
Once the front passes our winds will turn to the northwest, and the main band of rain will move into the county.
Right now the timing of that frontal passage and wind switch looks to be between 8 PM and 10 PM, meaning the parade will be ending or over by the time the rain arrives!
I would still keep that umbrella handy though, as we can still see some light rain or drizzle ahead of the main band of rain.
Even though the rain looks to arrive later than I had previously expected, rain totals haven't changed much.
I still expect between 0.10" and 0.33" in the Valley, and higher amounts in the mountains, exceeding 0.50" in spots.
We'll also see some mountain snow behind the cold front late Thursday night.
Snow levels will drop to around 3,000 feet, which means snow over the passes is possible.
However, it looks light, likely less than an inch, so no major travel impacts are expected.
