Side note: the “forecaster’s discussion” for your local NWS forecast area is easily the best one you can find. It’s the one all your weather apps and local TV meteorologists crib from. Sure, there’s a bit of meteorological terminology to learn, but they often link off to a glossary (then you can put that term into Wikipedia).<p>My favorite part of the forecasts is that they tell you unequivocally when they are confident in something and when they are not sure. They are not afraid to say a qualified “we don’t know”. This is is a stark contrast to almost every other forecast falsely projecting complete confidence trying to vie for viewership to attract advertising dollars.
Key paragraph:<p>"""
To put it simply, this will likely be one of the most impactful
systems on a widespread scale that this meteorologist has seen in
a long while. The impacts will include widespread flooding, roads
washing out, hillside collapsing, trees down (potentially full
groves), widespread power outages, immediate disruption to
commerce, and the worst of all, likely loss of human life. This
is truly a brutal system that we are looking at and needs to be
taken seriously.
"""
You probably just saved my life. I was planning to drive the coast highway on Wednesday and Thursday, including the Golden Gate Bridge and Monterey Bay... Time to replan this trip...
We've had some pineapple express systems come through the PNW and they were unbelievable rain events. One completely flooded the apartment complex bottom units where I lived.<p>Good luck bay area folks, definitely take it seriously. If you're a home owner and have been putting off cleaning out gutters, drains, etc. absolutely get on it right now while you have some time. These unusual rain events will easily back up semi-clogged or poor flowing drainage systems.
I put a bunch of USGS river gauge data into a notebook on Saturday and found that Bay Area creek flows were either above or near all-time records. Arroyo Valle, Alameda Creek, San Francisquito Creek and many others set records. And they’re predicting this next storm to be bigger and longer.
For the ones (like me) who don't / didn't know what a Pineapple Express is [0]: a lot of water coming from Hawaii, via clouds.<p>[0]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple_Express" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple_Express</a>
The part about how entire groves of trees could be toppled is wild to think about. I imagine (though don't know) the supersaturated soil means their footings have turned goopy and a strong gust could just push them past their holding limit.
My first floor flooded on NYE. I'm not looking forward to Wednesday -- will likely flood again. Going to be a lot of $$$ to repair and fix the drainage.
It would be super great if CA had invested in water recovery and reclamation to any real extent in the last few decades - because there's been little-to-no investment in the infrastructure not only do we run the risk of infrastructure collapse (a la Orville) but it doesn't even really do much to help with the water undersupply once the storm is gone :-/
Saturday's storm crushed everything between the bay area and santa cruz - lots of roads like highway 9 still have closures now.<p>and now round 2.
This title and the weather report make me wish people with factual jobs would stick to the facts.<p>It's really not a good sign when factual government projections start getting jazzed up with personal history.<p>All things considered, this storm is well within the design considerations for any road or building in California, so it shouldn't be considered, in advance, as catastrophic.<p>Is there no where to avoid relentless self-absorbed posturing?