Author Topic: First storm of the 2016-17 North CA rainy season  (Read 19328 times)

elagache

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First storm of the 2016-17 North CA rainy season
« on: October 13, 2016, 11:07:50 PM »
Dear WeatherCat weather watchers,

Those of us in the USofA at least may have discovered that a useful way to decide if hazardous weather is headed your way is to see how many colors are on your local National Weather Service bureau page.  This afternoon the Monterey page looks like this:



Normally we hope for a few drops as October drags on, but this year will start out differently.  The title of today's forecast discussion looks like this:

...POTENT EARLY SEASON STORM SYSTEM TO IMPACT THE REGION FROM LATE
  TONIGHT THROUGH THE WEEKEND...

No kiddin' all-caps to make the point that much more loudly.  The source of the trouble is a vigorous cold front that is tapping into a moisture plume left over from former Typhoon Songda.  The available moisture is close to a record for October.  The storm is already causing trouble in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.  Rains are expected to be heavy enough and the winds gusty enough to potentially cause damage.

I'm almost finished with my storm preparation.  All that's left is to put Rain-X on my collector cone.  An event like this - I don't want to miss a single drop! 

I do hope this storm will make it way east and help the many other westerners who are suffering from . . . .

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]


elagache

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Just what the doctor ordered! (Re: 2016-17 North CA rainy season0
« Reply #1 on: October 14, 2016, 11:44:27 PM »
Dear WeatherCat types who can't have droughts end fast enough,

Yippie!! 

The storm exceeded expectations and did so without doing any damage thus-far at least.  Here is a "blow by blow" thanks to my WC Storm Monitor AppleScripts:



I've regrouped the entries to read properly from left to right.  At Canebas weather station we've got 1.12" (28.5mm) and there is still some light rain coming down. To put that in context our normal rainfall for all of October is 1.37" (34.8mm) and we are expecting another round significant rains on Sunday!

I took a walk around the neighborhood and observed something unexpected.  The dirt wasn't close to having absorbed enough water for it to start running off.  It has been a very long and dry summer.  Hopefully the second round of rain will finally bring enough moisture to start providing significant relief for the plants.

I do hope this rain will help the drought sufferers to the east!

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

Blicj11

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Re: First storm of the 2016-17 North CA rainy season
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2016, 06:26:38 AM »
So happy for your precip. Send it on east; we need some too.
Blick


elagache

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Still coming! (Re: 2016-17 North CA rainy season)
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2016, 12:16:58 AM »
Dear Blick and WeatherCat drought sufferers,

It appears to me that the rain is headed your way, and it hasn't stopped raining here!  The frontal passage last night was plenty assertive!



We have picked up 2.67" (68mm) of rain and some showers are still likely to fall.  So the plants finally have genuine relief from the long hot summer!

Cheers, Edouard 

Blicj11

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Re: First storm of the 2016-17 North CA rainy season
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2016, 05:33:06 AM »
That storm has indeed reached us. We had a snowy day today and appreciate the precipitation it contained.
Blick


elagache

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Another "assertive" storm! (Re: 2016-17 North CA rainy season)
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2016, 10:31:03 PM »
Dear WeatherCat Western US drought watchers,

We were threatened with another nasty storm that had tapped into tropical moisture from hurricane Seymour.  However, that threat ended up just being a relatively normal period of rainfall.  Today was expected a fast moving front with the potential of moderate to heavy rainfall.  Well, this is what ultimately happened:



Because of the way my WC Storm Monitor AppleScript works it didn't catch the peak rainfall rate of 2.95"/hr (74.9mm/hr.)  The AppleScript did correctly get the final total for the frontal passage: 1.05" (26.7mm.)  For Northern California this is an assertive storm especially this early in the season.

I do hope it spreads its wet goodness to those drought sufferers further east!

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

Blicj11

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Re: First storm of the 2016-17 North CA rainy season
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2016, 06:19:31 PM »
Nice to see some a storm from some precip in your neighborhood. When it passed over here, it dropped 2 inches of snow. Keep it going.
Blick


elagache

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Finally rain after almost 3 weeks. (Re: 2016-17 North CA rainy season)
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2016, 10:57:14 PM »
Dear WeatherCat western USofA drought watchers,

After a soggy October, November has been darn right discouraging.  We hadn't got a single storm since the leftovers of the Halloween storm.  We had gone almost 3 weeks without any additional rain.  Fortunately, October left the ground very wet, and at this time of year, the long shadows meant that many places couldn't dry out completely.  Still, I had to start watering areas that were more exposed to the sun and that's no way to conserve water.

Finally we appear to be headed back into a wet period. The storms aren't expected to be as extreme, but there are storms lined up keep rain in the forecast through next weekend.  Even with the 0.43" we've picked up from this storm so far, we are over 1.75" behind a normal November.  Still maybe we can still catch up on that rainfall before the end of the month.

Cheers, Edouard

Mtn.Marty

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Re: First storm of the 2016-17 North CA rainy season
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2016, 01:47:33 PM »
We in Western NC could certainly use some rain. Just .02 in in all of November and the smoke from the wildfires is pervasive.

elagache

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Sorry about your Eastern drought (Re: North CA rainy season)
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2016, 11:24:10 PM »
Dear Mtn.Marty and WeatherCat drought sufferers,

We in Western NC could certainly use some rain. Just .02 in in all of November and the smoke from the wildfires is pervasive.

Sorry to hear that.  I see from the National Weather Service - Climate Prediction Center website that you are expected to be in an continuing drought:

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/

At the moment, there are regions of drought stretching almost across the whole country.  Definitely a distressing sign of the times.

Oh well, . . . . Edouard

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Re: First storm of the 2016-17 North CA rainy season
« Reply #10 on: November 21, 2016, 05:10:55 PM »
Edouard,   just catching up with this thread.  I having lived the majority of my life in CA I follow the drought news closely.  I hope for more rain for you and even more so, a robust snow pack for the Sierras.

I read in your first post about putting Rain-X on the collection cone!  Brilliant!  Now that we have moved to central New Mexico and I've logged only 4.39" so far this year I also feel like I need every micro drop to roll into the collector!  I think I may have even logged a hundreth or two of desert dust rather than water.  Twice this year I've had to go out and unplug the hole at the bottom of the cone that had packed with super fine dust.

-carl

elagache

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Buy Rain-X just for the station! (Re: 2016-17 North CA rainy season)
« Reply #11 on: November 21, 2016, 11:38:16 PM »
Dear Carl and WeatherCat drought watchers,

Thanks for the kind wishes.  We'll just have to see what La Ni?a actually does to us.

I read in your first post about putting Rain-X on the collection cone!  Brilliant!  Now that we have moved to central New Mexico and I've logged only 4.39" so far this year I also feel like I need every micro drop to roll into the collector!  I think I may have even logged a hundreth or two of desert dust rather than water.  Twice this year I've had to go out and unplug the hole at the bottom of the cone that had packed with super fine dust.

I'm glad that you find Rain-X helpful.  I find myself in an odd predicament of having to buy the original Rain-X strictly for the collector cone.  For the two cars that are kept in the garage I have switched to the PPG product called Aquapel:

http://www.aquapel.com/

It is much easier to apply and does last the entire rainy season so long as the car is kept in the garage most of the time.

We have one car that stays outside but I use the Rain-X 2-in-1 glass cleaner and treatment because that windshield gets dirty all the time.  So I have a small bottle of original Rain-X for the collector cone and i know it will lose potency long before I can finish it!

Best of luck in your rainy season!

Cheers, Edouard

elagache

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Pineapple express anyone? (Re: 2016-17 North CA rainy season)
« Reply #12 on: December 07, 2016, 11:44:20 PM »
Dear WeatherCat Western United States drought watchers,

Northern California is preparing for a striking change in the weather pattern.  To quote from this morning's forecast discussion:

Quote
Conditions will quickly change as the overall pattern switches from cool and dry to quite wet as the overall flow transitions to zonal by tonight. Synoptically a plume of fairly high PW values (traced west of Hawaii) will become entrained in the flow and move to our coast by late in the evening.

This "juicy" situation is likely to give us perhaps as much as 2 inches of rain by the end of the weekend.  Additional rain is expected next week and climate prediction centers 6-10 day and 8-14 day outlook call for above normal rainfall.   There is a recent pattern of wet Decembers as well.  Of the past 6 years of data at my station, 4 of the 6 have been well above normal.  Alas, a wet December doesn't mean a wet winter, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

Stay tuned!

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

xairbusdriver

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Re: First storm of the 2016-17 North CA rainy season
« Reply #13 on: December 08, 2016, 12:02:04 AM »
Just hope he rain doesn't fill the reservoirs with mud slides! Remember, every silver lining has a dark cloud inside! [rolleyes2] :o [banghead]
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Blicj11

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Re: First storm of the 2016-17 North CA rainy season
« Reply #14 on: December 08, 2016, 04:02:13 PM »
That same storm is predicted to drop 3-4 feet of snow outside my front window over the next several days. Not sure if I believe the forecast, but the extrapolated forecast from WU adjusted for my location has been quite accurate for snow, less so for rain.
Blick