DARK SKIES AHEAD
First major rainstorm of the season may finally be here
Northern California residents may have spent Sunday watching the skies and waiting for promised showers to start between football games and commercial breaks, but there shouldn’t be any doubt about rainfall starting Tuesday.
Monday’s skies started out partly cloudy in the morning before clearing by the afternoon. However, the clear skies were expected to be short-lived with rain starting early Tuesday.
So, don’t be deluded by the
Sunday “showers” that only left .06 inches of rain at some locations in Woodland because the “atmospheric river” should start rolling in soon. The plume of moisture being pulled toward the California coast by a low-pressure system should bring heavy rain and a fair amount of snow, experts said.
National Weather Service meteorologist Brayden Murdock said that the strongest showers should be arriving Tuesday night through Thursday. Both the San Jose and San Francisco areas will see between three to four inches of rain, while higher elevations
could see as much as eight inches, a number that could be met in Big Sur.
“We’ve had some stronger ones (storms) but in terms of the water year, this is the most significant rain chances we’ve seen since October, when the water year starts,” he said.
When the atmospheric rivers move over the mountains, the water vapor rises and cools to create rain, experts say. Although some are weak systems that simply provide beneficial rain or snow, more powerful ones can cause extreme rainfall and floods.
A strong atmospheric river
can transport an amount of water vapor equivalent to 7.5 to 15 times the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River, according to the weather service.
Temperatures are also expected to not vary too much in the next several days, Murdoch said. Much of the Sacramento Valley was in the mid50s with overnight lows in the upper 30s. Highs on Monday were expected to continue in the mid-50s.