3/12/25

Good Wednesday morning,

Tuesday was quite a surprise with the rain total that climbed to a little over a ¼ of an inch yesterday morning. It did catch me and the national weather service off guard, but a stronger cell of rain drifted right up the coast and brought moderate rain for 2 hours Tuesday morning to SB. We had .30 and other areas around ¼ of an inch. The interesting part is normal wetter locations had less then 1/10 of an inch. Lake Cachuma only saw .006. Bottom line rain total yesterday varied from very little to 1/3 of an inch. It was a good thing to get more rain than I expected, but I got rather wet helping to load wood at Hayward Lumber. Sorry for all those that got wet and had no rain gear on hand, I was with you ☹.

Today we will not miss this one. As we have been talking about this day for the past 10 days. As we go to work you will see high clouds, but no rain till later in the day. Rain will start up very light anywhere from 10am to 2pm, but it will be lighter with no more than ¼ to ½ inch until late this evening.

Heavy rain will start up tonight and into Thursday. You can see it here and Zoom in on Santa Barbara or wherever you live locally. https://zoom.earth/maps/precipitation/#view=34.501715,-119.752453,9z/date=2025-03-12,15:00,-7/model=icon

Heavy rain will fall for around a 6-hour period as the cold air arrives tonight with rain rates of ½ inch to 1 inch per hour. Thunderstorms up to 1.5 inches per hour. rain totals have not changed for the past week as models have stayed consistent. Expect 1 to 2 inches coastal and 2 to 4 inches in the mountains. This does have a southerly component with some subtropical moisture. Bottom line it will be a very strong system for March. Rain should back off Thursday mid-morning turning to showers.  Expect at least some flooding in areas with heavy rain.

There will be another weaker system on Friday, but as discussed this should stay primarily to the north and where it does affect us it will be lighter rain.

The weekend looks dry, but late Sunday night another weak system drops to the north, mainly affection northern California

Enjoy the damp day, lighter rain arrives likely after lunch. Don’t forget your rain gear or umbrella  

It will pour overnight tonight.

Jack Martin