PLAYA WATCH

Weather

Conditions at the Golden Spike, and what they mean for getting around.

Playa now · dust risk (experimental)

BLUEWING MOUNTAIN, 20 mi S →

6LOW4 mph ESE, gusting 6

50°F

Wind 3 mph, gusting 3 · visibility 7.6 mi

Updated 8:24 AM PT

Open-Meteo

Light & layers

Daylight

Sunset in 9h 38m (6:06 PM)

Dark by 6:34 PM

Now: Cold. Warm jacket, hat, long pants.

  1. 2 PMWind picking up — goggles and mask — Gusts to 29 mph. Expect blowing dust on open playa.
  2. 2 PMRain chance 40% — A shell in the bag. Wet playa turns to mud that stops bikes.
  3. 6 PMRain chance 43% — A shell in the bag. Wet playa turns to mud that stops bikes.
  4. 9 PMRain chance 44% — A shell in the bag. Wet playa turns to mud that stops bikes.
  5. 10 PMWind easing — Gusts back under 25 mph.

Sun times computed for the Golden Spike; “dark” is civil dusk, when you need a light. The temperature falls fastest in the hour after sunset.

Getting around today

Gusts to 36 mph are forecast — expect blowing dust, slower riding, and poor visibility on open playa. Goggles and a mask. Rain chance peaks at 45% — wet playa turns to mud that stops bikes entirely.

Travel estimates in the planner are inflated by 50% to account for this — an estimate, not a measurement.

Radar

Loading radar…

The nearest weather radar is at Reno, about 100 miles away. At that distance the beam passes thousands of feet above the playa, so it shows storms aloft but regularly misses light rain and virga — the very thing that turns the ground to mud. A clear radar is not proof of a dry playa. Radar by RainViewer.

Air

US AQI

36

Dust

4μg/m³

PM10

7μg/m³

Modelled, not measured. There is no air sensor at Black Rock City in any public feed — the nearest regulatory monitor is about 85 miles away — so treat this as a forecast of dust, not a reading of it. Your own eyes beat this number. Air quality data by Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0).

No active alerts. Official severe-weather alerts for the playa come from the National Weather Service; nothing in this app detects dust storms.

Next 24 hours

8 AM

50°

3g

27%

9 AM

51°

3g

29%

10 AM

53°

8g

31%

11 AM

55°

11g

29%

12 PM

56°

16g

26%

1 PM

54°

25g

29%

2 PM

54°

29g

40%

3 PM

52°

29g

40%

4 PM

52°

28g

40%

5 PM

50°

32g

39%

6 PM

49°

35g

43%

7 PM

47°

36g

45%

8 PM

47°

31g

37%

9 PM

47°

29g

44%

10 PM

46°

23g

58%

11 PM

47°

17g

61%

12 AM

46°

12g

69%

1 AM

47°

21g

68%

2 AM

46°

19g

55%

3 AM

47°

11g

41%

4 AM

47°

8g

24%

5 AM

46°

19g

6 AM

44°

13g

7 AM

42°

11g

Temperature, peak gust (g) and rain chance. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0); official alerts by NOAA/NWS.