Keep an eye on California, from the SF Bay area to LA this weekend. We have already had some interesting weather in the last 3 days, including heavy rains, hail, snow down to 2000' and lower, and more. We had snow on the hills less than 10 miles from SLOweather last evening.
You can get a pretty good idea of the current situation by watching the Southwestern Weather Network mesomap at
www.southwesternweather.net.
In 4 days, SLOweather had recorded 3.75" of rain. It's rained every day:
0.74″ rain since midnight (13 hours)
0.97" yesterday
1.90″ rain Tuesday
0.14 rain Monday
=============
3.75" storm total
12.31" season total to-date
11.28″ season average to-date
For the first time in 2 years, we are not only average, but above average. For perspective, last season, we only had a total of a little over 9" of rain.
Granted, that doesn't seem like a lot of rain. However, this storm coupled with the last decent one 3 weeks ago have thoroughly saturated the ground. Local creeks are running close to full, and there are lots of watches and warnings statewide. Locally, we have a county-wide Snow Advisory tonight, (unheard of, in my experience).
On to the weekend.
John Lindsey, the local PG&E meteorologist, says:
---
ATMOSPHERIC CONDITION:
A cold upper-level trough passed our area at 14:30 (2:30 pm) this
afternoon giving gusty southerly winds and periods of moderate rain.
Rain showers and a chance of thunderstorms will develop later this
the evening and will continue through tonight.
The evolving weather pattern is very similar to that of the 1991
"March Miracle". A low pressure system moving southward out of
the Gulf of Alaska is expected to stall west of Diablo Canyon where
it will entrain moisture from the tropics and intensify to 996 mb
(29.41 in/Hg).
This weather system will maintain a continuous southerly flow over
the region at mid and upper levels of the atmosphere and tap into
subtropical moisture on Friday, bringing the potential for very
heavy rain beginning Friday afternoon through Sunday morning,
especially along our coastal areas.
Snow levels will rise significantly on Friday through Saturday to
7000 feet, but will drop but down to 2,000 feet on Sunday. Heavy
snow totals are expected in the Sierra.
This entire event will produce fresh gale to strong gale (39-54 mph)
southerly winds and heavy rain. At this time, another 3 to 5 inches
of rainfall is expected with this system (Friday through Sunday).
Note: The heaviest rainfall should occur on Saturday afternoon
through early Sunday morning.
A break in the weather is forecast on Monday through Tuesday, then
another cold front will give rain on Wednesday.
-----
I was here for the 1991 event. If this is like that, we're in for a ride.
The Cambria, CA CSD fire chief sent out this advisory today.
---
There is a Significant storm approaching Central California and specifically us here in Cambria and SLO Co.
Weather Update (as of 1530 hours):
* A large storm is approaching our coastline and is expected to directly affect us here in Cambria (and all of SLO Co.) sometime between Friday (January 25th) and Sunday January 27th.
* Rain expected now is 3-5 inches plus.
* Wind is expected at 39 to 54 mile per hour with gusts exceeding 60 mph out of the SE.
* The peak of this storm is now expected to hit us between Friday afternoon and Saturday evening.
* The National Weather Service and Local meteorologists are all predicting this storm could be as bad or worse than the storms that caused significant damage in 1991 and 1995. One of these storms resulted in devastating flooding in the West Village here in Cambria.
These storms have increased in intensity and magnitude since earlier this week. They still could veer off course, lose intensity and or increase in intensity. Be vigilant.
That said everyone should prepare for significant rain, possible flooding, multiple trees down and a significant power outage.
Please prepare for a significant storm event. I will try and update you as we get more information and updates.
---
Forecasts, watches and warnings for other SWN members up and down the coast are similar.
I've been posting updates and photos to the
SLOweather.com blog. If it gets as bad as they say, I'll try to keep the blog updated, but I dunno how much I'll be able to post here.
It'll be interesting to see how The Weather Channel handles this event, if it truly develops.
