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Saturday’s top of the scroll: Big storms mean big storm totals, But will the rain and snow fall in the right place?

Posted by: Maven on January 16, 2010 at 8:59 am

weather mapFrom Accu-Weather Western Weather Blog:

“My ideas of storm totals for next week in California have changed little since my posting on Tuesday. That day I gave some general rain and snowfall totals, well ahead of the NWS and others. Today I want to give you the best idea possible as to what to expect in California, southern Nevada and Arizona from these storms.

There will be three distinct storms next week spreading inland from California. Of course they will hit California before they arrive in southern Nevada and Arizona. But due to a very strong jet stream (up to 200 mph) the arrival times will not be tremendously far apart. For the sake of space I will give the timing for California, knowing it will be a little later for areas east. Storm number 1 is in the Sunday through Monday time period. Storm 2 is in the Tuesday/Tuesday night time period. Storm 3, the strongest and coldest of the bunch, will be later Wednesday through Thursday night, lingering into part of Friday.

To simplify things I will be talking about rain and snowfall amounts for the entire week, not each storm. … “

Continue reading this post at the Accu-Weather Western Weather blog by clicking here.

From the Merced Sun-Star:

“But will the rain and snow fall in the right place to replenish the state’s largest reservoirs? El Nino, the weather-influencing trend in the Pacific Ocean, often brings more snow to the Southern Sierra than the northern part of the range. But the state’s largest reservoirs — Shasta and Oroville — are in the north.

The two reservoirs need 110 percent of average runoff this year if they are to provide the normal supply of water for millions of Southern Californians, millions of San Joaquin Valley farmland acres and a faltering ecosystem in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

About half the rainfall season is already over, and the snowpack — a rough predictor of later runoff — is only about 75 percent of average in the Northern Sierra.

But state and federal officials know meteorologists are talking about a sudden turnaround. … “

Get the perspective on reservoir levels and precipitation by clicking here.

The storms are causing concern for those living near burn areas, reports the Silicon Valley Mercury News:

” … Big wildfires in recent years have left many parts of California with landscapes where there is little or no vegetation left to capture runoff, setting the stage for potential disasters.

A major worry is in the string of foothill suburbs northeast of Los Angeles located below 250 square miles of the mountainous Angeles National Forest that burned in the Station Fire last summer.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works said residents in at-risk areas were advised that rainfall rates could exceed a half-inch an hour. The department tentatively plans to close county roads within the Station Fire burn area at 4 a.m. Sunday, pending updated forecasts on Saturday.

An emergency analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey shortly after the Station Fire found that the mountains could unleash destructive debris flows through neighborhoods, especially if catch basins at the mouths of some drainages fill up—a scenario more likely with successive days of rain. … “

More from the Silicon Valley Mercury News by clicking here.

January 16, 2010 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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