Storm slowly moving our way: Models continue to slow the impending storm down -- so much so that we're renaming it Saturday's storm. Flash Flood Watches will be in effect for the burn areas beginning at midnight tonight. An indicator of how large this system is -- the northern end of the main rain band is pushing into British Columbia, including Victoria and Vancouver. This band extends down the Pacific coast -- it is raining all the way down to Eureka. A smaller band in front of it is moving through the Bay Area and beginning to impact the Central Coast. The southern end of the band curls away from the coast and is directly west of Point Conception, and it looks very impressive. This part of the storm will pinwheel into Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties this evening, and eventually we'll have our turn early Saturday morning. It will not be out of the question to see pre-frontal showers late this afternoon into tonight, as the atmosphere will be very moist ahead of the main rain band. Rainfall rates will increase after 0100 hours Saturday, with coastal/valley areas seeing 0.1" to 0.25" per hour and foothill locales seeing 0.25" to 0.50" per hour rainfall rates. Conditions will deteriorate later Saturday morning, as the main frontal band will slam into Southern California -- bringing sheets of rain with possibilities of rates between 1" and 1.5" per hour. The heaviest rainfall should be between 0800 hours and 1200 hours. Once the cold front passes, very unstable air will stream in -- giving us a threat of thunderstorms and waterspouts. We're looking at 0.75" to 1.5" total for the coastal/valley areas, with 1.5" to 2.5" for the foothill/mountains and 3" for south-facing slopes. However, those numbers will jump if we get prolonged durations of very high rainfall rates.
Needless to say, this forecast is well above what the burn areas can take.
A much weaker system will arrive in the Tuesday/Wednesday timeframe, and it looks like next weekend will also be soggy.
Needless to say, this forecast is well above what the burn areas can take.
A much weaker system will arrive in the Tuesday/Wednesday timeframe, and it looks like next weekend will also be soggy.
