Special Weather Statement for N. California -- heavy rain & winds forecast

A potential for "up to 20 inches" in the wettest areas, starting Sunday night, January 17th:

Issued by The National Weather Service / San Francisco/Monterey, CA / 2:15 pm PST, Thu., Jan. 14, 2010

Special Weather Statement for North Bay Interior Valleys, CA

THE LATEST FORECAST MODELS CONTINUE TO DEPICT A SERIES OF STORMS WILL MOVE IN FROM THE PACIFIC AND IMPACT CALIFORNIA NEXT WEEK

THE FIRST OF THE MORE SIGNIFICANT SYSTEMS IS FORECAST TO SPREAD RAIN INTO OUR AREA STARTING LATE ON SUNDAY AND CONTINUING THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON. THIS SYSTEM COULD PRODUCE UP TO 3 INCHES OF NEW RAINFALL FOR THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS AND 1-2 INCHES FOR THE VALLEYS.

AFTER A BRIEF BREAK ON MONDAY NIGHT THE NEXT IN THE SERIES IS EXPECTED TO SPREAD MORE RAIN INTO OUR AREA THROUGHOUT THE DAY TUESDAY AND INTO TUESDAY EVENING. AN ADDITIONAL 2-4 INCHES OF RAINFALL IS POSSIBLE ACROSS THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS WITH 1-2 INCHES FOR THE VALLEYS.

A SECOND BREAK IS EXPECTED TUESDAY NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING BEFORE THE NEXT AND MOST POWERFUL SYSTEM OF THE WEEK APPROACHES DURING THE DAY WEDNESDAY. THIS SYSTEM COULD LINGER WEILL INTO THURSDAY. TOTALS FOR THIS SYSTEM COULD REACH 3-5 INCHES OR MORE FOR THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS AND 1-3 FOR THE VALLEYS. AS THE FRONT MOVES THROUGH SHOWERS COULD PERSIST WELL INTO FRIDAY. ALSO OF NOTE... A VERY POWERFUL JET STREAM IS FORECAST TO BE OVER CALIFORNIA BY THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK WHILE A DEEP SURFACE LOW IS POSITIONED OFF THE WASHINGTON COAST. THIS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE VERY STRONG WINDS AND HIGH WIND WARNINGS MAY BE NEEDED.

BY THE END OF THE WEEK AHEAD... TOTAL RAINFALL COULD REACH 10-15 INCHES AT THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS AND THE POTENTIAL FOR UP TO 20 INCHES IN THE WETTEST LOCATIONS. IN THE VALLEYS... 4-8 INCHES.

Link: http://www.weather.com/weather/alerts/localalerts/94559?phenomena=TSL&significance=S&areaid=CAZ506&office=KMTR&etn=e34183c2155103809ce1557cde984fefeb7af5b6

That sounds like heavy-duty flooding.

Could you please ship some of the extra rain, you know, the wet stuff you don't need to the Central Valley and then on down to the southern part of the state. We could sure use it. My trees are suffering from lack of water since the city started water rationing down here.

Sorry to hear you've got rationing. Hopefully the Central Valley will get some of this.

I might have been caught unawares! -mb

on Wednesday or Thursday is gonna be the Big Nasty.

An inch an hour in some parts

and it's still coming down. There's water running in our little creek for the first time in a long, long time. Yikes.

It boggles my mind that the engineers think they can save it. Even when they started to pile on the boulders I knew it would be a lost case. I lived in Santa Monica and there was a house perched on a hill going north on the PCH. One day after storms the huge house can tumbling down and it wasn't even next to the ocean.

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More Soil Erosion Threatens Second Pacifica Apartment Building


PACIFICA (KCBS) -- Soil engineers, who have been working for weeks to shore up the Pacifica bluff in danger of slipping into the sea, have now shifted their focus.

Much of the work completed so far has been done to help strengthen the cliff-side behind the Seaside apartment building at 330 Esplanade, after much of the cliff crumbled away last month.

A giant crane was brought in to drop multi-ton boulders along the beach below, in an effort to stop the erosion.

<snip>



http://www.kcbs.com/pages/6107299.php?

Heavy rain after a brief respite during the night. Rivers are full-- the Mad River, which I cross twice a day or more is bank-to-bank and ripping. I overheard a couple of surfers at the gym last night talking about 40 foot swells from the next storm in the pipeline.

Every door that could fly open did, the kitchen flooded, the horses are cranky, power on and off, internet ditto, and there's enough mud here to do a scale model of Pompeii.

On the other hand, the creek is flowing for the first time in recent memory and I bet the wildflowers will be amazing in May.

I don't remember this kind of storming since 1992 when iirc, it rained for like 6 months or so.

WE HAD A TORNADO IN SF.

At least 40 buildings -- 20 homes and 20 businesses including a fire station under construction -- were damaged as the swirling winds ran a wild 3-mile path across the city from Westborough to the San Francisco Bay. The twister also uprooted towering trees caused gas leaks and knocked out power to about 1500 residents.

South San Francisco Fire Chief Philip White said that one home had to be evacuated because of extensive damage. Throughout the city residents were stepping around snapped power lines and cleaning up pieces of roofs from houses blocks away. Traffic lights some twisted were out at many intersections.

"I've been with the South San Francisco Fire Department for 22 years and I've never seen anything like this" White said.

South San Francisco Battalion Chief Tom Azzopardi said the funnel cloud touched down an estimated six times. It formed over the Westborough hills during a storm with dark skies and hail touching down twice in that area before heading east over Interstate 280. Once downtown it smashed into homes and businesses bounced around an industrial park at Canal Street and South Spruce Avenue and then headed to Cypress Street over Highway 101 to Dubuque Avenue and finally the bay where it weakened.

http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-03-21/news/17365129_1_industrial-park-power-lines-roofs

in North Park. Rain's going sideways. I haven't been in a storm like this since I left Alabama back 8 years ago.