Oooh, real weather comes to California

Three storms in a row forecast for CA with up to 150mph winds 8O

Heck - that sounds rough alright! Power outages possible - I guess you can cope with 30mins with a UPS but any longer and you would need a generator… and possibly closing I80 over the hills out of there - heck! Four days of it… We will keep a watch on this thread… :wink:

TokKiwi

Hmmm, glorious summer here, 27

I think that should read Oh Oh. All that rain after all those fires. Hope things go well!!

Keep us posted.

The fires in SoCal have got the hillsides with not a lot of vegetation to hold it together, so they’re very concerned about mudslides in the fire areas. NorCal has had much fewer fire events, but our hills around the SF Bay Area are notorious for slipping away after a prolonged rainy spell. Since we’re quite behind on our rain quota, the pundits are not too worried about mudslides here.

With the expected strike of “the strongest storm since 2005” (as the local TV is saying), the expectation is for many downed trees, power outages but only localized flooding and ponding. The Santa Cruz mountains could get 10 inches with the three storms (Thurs through Sunday).

I didn’t get a whole lot out of the storm that came through today, .46 inches of rain and max gust of 23 mph. Mt. Diablo had gusts of 55-60 mph. I’m sitting on the edge of my seat waiting see what happens Friday. If NWS’ predictions hold true, the second one will be THE classic Pacific winter storm, high winds, heavy rain, possible flooding, and maybe even a few thunderstorms thrown in for good measure. Blizzard warnings and high wind warnings are still posted for the Sierra. It should be a fun day. :smiley:

In So Cal, flash flood watches and high wind watches are already posted. Not a good situation for the burn areas.

Yeah, the first storm is pretty much over and only 0.17in of rain here with a max gust of 31.1 mph @ 8:50am.

NWS says

A HIGH WIND WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM PST FRIDAY.
SOUTH TO SOUTHEAST WINDS IN THE 20 TO 35 MPH RANGE WITH GUSTS TO
55 MPH WILL INCREASE TO 30 TO 45 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH ALONG
THE COAST AND IN THE VALLEYS TONIGHT. THE SECOND…MORE POWERFUL
SYSTEM WILL BRING EVEN STRONGER WINDS TO NORTHERN AND CENTRAL
CALIFORNIA. WINDS IN THE HILLS ABOVE 1000 FEET COULD POSSIBLY GUST
TO HURRICANE FORCE…75 MPH ON FRIDAY. WINDS WILL DECREASE FRIDAY
EVENING.

Our hatches are battened (I hope)…

The north end of that storm is starting to affect us up here in Idaho. Have had a 28 mph gust already this morning, and should be a windy day with gusts to 50mph forecast.

I have family in the Lake Tahoe area, and used to live there. I have seen some big dumps, but was surprised to see a forecast of up to 10 feet (which they seem to have scaled down now). A look at the Tahoe area NWS discussion is now calling for up to 200mph ridge top gusts 8O 8O, with 100mph gusts in the foothills west of Reno, and 75 mph gusts in the valleys of the east slope (fernley to reno). Wow!
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/rev/prodreq.php?wfo=rev&sid=rev&pil=afd&pvnum=11

Like the movies, storms here don’t often live up to their advance publicity (fortunately), but usually the winds can be expected to take out our third world quality electrical distribution system. I’ve lost power three times so far this AM, but only for a few minutes each time, and the UPS’s are continually “twitching” with transients so I’m going to shut down anything non-essential.

Storm report issued by NWS at 9:59 AM today.

[size=66]LOCAL STORM REPORT

NWUS56 KMTR 041759 LSRMTR
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN FRANCISCO CA
959 AM PST FRI JAN 04 2008
…TIME… …EVENT… …CITY LOCATION… …LAT.LON… …DATE… …MAG… …COUNTY LOCATION…ST… …SOURCE… …REMARKS…

0909 AM HIGH SUST WINDS 3 NW TIBURON 37.92N 122.50W 01/04/2008 M58.00 MPH MARIN CA OFFICIAL NWS OBS MEASURED ON ANGEL ISLAND. WINDS GUSTING TO 78 MPH.

0919 AM HIGH SUST WINDS 1 N SAN FRANCISCO 37.78N 122.43W 01/04/2008 M52.00 MPH SAN FRANCISCO CA OFFICIAL NWS OBS MEASURED ON GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE MID-SPAN. WINDS GUSTING TO 70 MPH.

0941 AM HIGH SUST WINDS 5 E CLAYTON 37.94N 121.84W 01/04/2008 M71.00 MPH CONTRA COSTA CA MESONET MEASURED ON KREGOR PEAK. ELEVATION 1900 FEET. WINDS GUSTING TO 107 MPH. &&[/size]

I think this storm is living up to expectations. You might want to take a gander at this http://cbs5.com/trafficreport . A few highlights, big rigs are not allowed on the San Rafael Bridge due to high winds. A buffer lane has been set up on the Golden Gate Bridge to keep cars from slamming into each other.

One more little tidbit.

Due to WEATHER / WIND, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA (SFO). This is causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 2 hours and 18 minutes. To see if you may be affected, select your departure airport and check “Delays by Destination”.

Delays by Destination: No destination-specific delays are being reported.

General Departure Delays: Due to WX:WIND, traffic is experiencing Gate Hold and Taxi delays between 3 hours and 16 minutes and 3 hours and 30 minutes in length and increasing.

Two hours ago my station in Shasta co was seeing 50 mph gusts, but then lost power. Power seems to have stabilized here on the coast, but now the phone’s out :roll:

It’s been stormy here for about 7 hours. So far, 3.50in of rain (2+in in the last 2h30m). Max gust today 48.0mph @ 9:40a breaking my all-time of 47.0mph in Feb, 2004.

Regretably, WD had a slight hickup and had to close while I was out, so the rain total on WD will need correction tomorrow. My WeatherLink NOAA-style report is keeping up fine for now.

You’re just having too much fun over there, Niko. So far, no problems here in the mudflats of Union City.

Wow, Ken. You are really getting hammered. It hasn’t been that bad here. So far, I’ve had 1.03 inches of rain and max gust of 33 mph.

Wow, Ken, I think you’re the winner #-o

Ken - I think the WxSim forecast for the evening had much lower winds predicted than NWS 7mph vs 15~21mph. Have you seen this before? Or are there often variances…?

Stay inside :wink: - are you at home or at work elewhere? Hmmm, I found my Wx PC had locked up last night around 1:00am, first time in about a month that I have had any problems… :frowning:

Going to the mountains today would certainly be a bad idea.

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0006 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 1237 PM CST FRI JAN 04 2008

AREAS AFFECTED…CA SIERRA MOUNTAINS

CONCERNING…BLIZZARD

VALID 041837Z - 042300Z

HEAVY SNOW WILL INCREASE ACROSS THE CENTRAL/SOUTHERN SIERRA THIS
AFTERNOON…WITH RATES OF 2-5 IN/HR AND VERY STRONG WINDS/WHITE-OUT
CONDITIONS.

Storm Prediction Center Mesoscale Discussion 6

Perhaps they may close I80??

Yup

This highway information is the latest reported as of Friday, January 4, 2008 at 12:11 .

I 80
[IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA]
A HIGH WIND ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT AT THE SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND BAY BRIDGE
/IN SAN FRANCISCO/ (SAN FRANCISCO,ALAMEDA CO) - TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED
FOR CAMPERS, TRAILERS OR PERMIT LOADS

[IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA & THE SIERRA NEVADA] 
IS CLOSED TO WESTBOUND TRAFFIC AT TRUCKEE (NEVADA CO) AT 1201 HRS ON  

1/4/08 - DUE TO SPINOUTS

CHAINS ARE REQUIRED ON ALL VEHICLES EXCEPT 4-WHEEL-DRIVE VEHICLES WITH SNOW 

TIRES ON ALL 4 WHEELS FROM KINGVALE (PLACER CO) TO TRUCKEE (NEVADA CO)

EASTBOUND TRUCKS ARE BEING SCREENED AT APPLEGATE (PLACER CO) - DRIVERS MUST  

HAVE MAXIMUM CHAINS IN THEIR POSSESSION IN ORDER TO PROCEED - PERMIT LOADS ARE
PROHIBITED

WESTBOUND TRUCKS ARE BEING SCREENED 5 MI WEST OF RENO (WASHOE CO) - DRIVERS  

MUST HAVE MAXIMUM CHAINS IN THEIR POSSESSION IN ORDER TO PROCEED - PERMIT LOADS
ARE PROHIBITED

EASTBOUND TRAFFIC IS REDUCED TO 1 LANE AT APPLEGATE (PLACER CO) - DUE  

TO SNOW

A HIGH WIND ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT OVER THE YOLO CAUSEWAY & OVER THE BRYTE  

BEND BRIDGE /WEST OF SACRAMENTO/ (YOLO CO) - TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR
CAMPERS, TRAILERS OR PERMIT LOADS

Well Niko…sounds like your Wx is about the same as ours at the moment…The Snow gates are all closed south of us and there are blizzards in the mountains…No power cuts here though, but it is a bit windy (near the norm almost) gusting mid 30’s with 50+ occasional…

Yeah, but we’re not used to it :lol:

Definitely as bad as 2005 (as they’d promised). Now 8h30m into the event and rain at 4.41in so far.

I was just out unclogging several gutters and experienced the sheets of rain and wind up to 35mph.
I much prefer to observe such weather from the comfort of inside the house.

Blub, blub, glug.

Ken