1/12/23

Good Thursday morning,

Today will be the warmest and driest day in the next 7, but not a chamber of commerce day. The only reason this will be the best day is that wet weather is returning through Tuesday of next week with 2 more storms affecting us.

This will top all lakes and reservoirs from all counties around us. Cachuma 84.2%, Nacimiento 73% with all climbing. https://nrwmac.org/lake-levels/  Just look at this graphic. Countywide we have received 102% of annual rainfall and it is just early January. and 270% of normal rainfall for the year to date, yes doing math that is almost 3 times normal rainfall. This does not even include the next 2 upcoming storms.

https://files.countyofsb.org/pwd/hydrology/Rainfall%20Reports/rainfallreport.pdf      …… just crazy numbers………

So what’s happening today and the rest of the week?

Today we have a weak ridge that has pushed the storm track to the North, we will still see some high clouds and no rain. https://files.countyofsb.org/pwd/hydrology/Rainfall%20Reports/rainfallreport.pdf

Friday the storm track begins to shift towards us again. It looks like a dry Friday, but Friday night and Saturday the rain is back. We are looking at 1 to 1.5 inches coastal and 3 inches in the mountains. We will see heavy rain, but not as hard as Monday for 3 to 6 hours ½ inch per hour. This system even has a lot of lightning with it, so it needs to be watched.

Sunday, we get a short break between the 2 storms with only some very light showers. Sunday night the next system rolls towards us. This is a cold system and snow levels will be much lower. This will likely give the Santa Ynez mountains some white caps, it will be a pretty view.

Tuesday will be cold, but the rain should be gone. Wednesday they are talking about a ridge building ….. this means the tap will be turned off and we will get back to some dry weather for a change. It has been an amazing (no historical) 4 weeks of rain. We will remember this year for a long time.

Let’s get ready for more rain and all lakes to top…. enjoy the ride, you can't stop it…

Jack Martin