2/1/24

Good Thursday morning, 

Welcome to February, the wettest month of the year. 

We are certainly starting off with very wet weather. Where the rain duration was not very long, we did see some great totals in a short period of time. The Santa Barbara area over night saw 2 plus inches for all and 3.5 inches in the hills. The San Marcus Pass has seen almost 5 inches, Montecito 2.5 inches. The subtropical jet is now moving south of our area, so the heavy rain will come to an end in the next 2 hours  
https://zoom.earth/maps/satellite/#view=33.42,-113.62,5.31z/date=2024-02-01,03:20,-8

The winds also have been a big factor, with a large tree down on Carrillo hill. Stay away from that area this morning. 

As I mentioned the heaviest part of the first storm system is almost over. Rain rates were 1/4 to 1/2 per hour through the night with strong south winds. https://radar.weather.gov/station/KVTX/standard

For the rest of the day, heavy rains will turn to showers shortly, but for the most part dry with just some showers lingering.

Friday and Saturday will be dry, but the next system rolls in Saturday night into Sunday.

This next system will bring double what the first system brought us over night and last 24 to 48 hours with moderate to heavy rain at times.

The next system will have subtropical support and spin down the coast and stall near us pumping in the subtropical moisture for a much longer period of time. All the models agree this will be the strongest system of 2024 and accumulations of 2 to 4 inches coastal 4 to 8 inches mountains and more on south faces (us).

Of course, we will need to watch this. Systems like this in the past have really created long lasting rains for days, which can result in flooding. This will be one to watch as it gets closer.

Stay tuned, dry for a few days then watch out for this next one.

Jack Martin