California to get some interesting weather in the coming weeks
Some interesting times ahead -- from The Orange County Register's
Science Dude:
�Potentially epic� rain coming to O.C.
The National Weather Service has issued a new and disturbing forecast for next week�s series of storms, saying Orange County could receive �potentially epic� rains, with as much as 20� of precipitation in the Santa Ana Mountains and 4� to 8� along the coast.
Santa Ana averages less than 3� of rain for the entire month of January.
�We�re giving a lot of advance warning so property owners and emergency planners can take action ahead of this,� says Rob Balfour, a weather service forecaster.
The U.S. Climate Prediction Center said today the upcoming storms �finally show El Nino traipsing in� to Southern California. El Nino can greatly enhance rainfall. Forecasters said the upcoming storms could rival the damaging El Nino rains that hit Orange County in January 1995.
Balfour said the polar jet stream �is extremely strong; it already extends from off Asia to Hawaii and up higher.� The storms will tap some of that sub-tropical moisture, strengthening the storms.
The first storm will arrive late Sunday night or early Monday and will drop 1.5� or more of rain. The surges coming Tuesday and Thursday/Friday will be stronger. By the end of the week, hillsides will be soaked, raising the prospect of mudslides. Ski resorts in the San Bernardino Mountains are expected to get 4 feet of snow.
Getting the snow will be fantastic as the snowpack is very low right now and there are water shortages in summer as a result. The lowland rains are not so fantastic as there is a lot of land that has been denuded by the wildfires and landslides are a distinct possibility.
Posted by DaveH at January 16, 2010 6:40 PM