April showers may be more scarce than normal north of Point Conception in California, according to an outlook produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
With unusually dry, hot weather continuing for weeks on end and the driest February in the Bay Area in 156 years, nearly a quarter of California’s land area now is under drought conditions, federal officials announced Thursday.
Altogether, 23.3% of the state is in “moderate drought” — up from 9.5% last week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly report issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
A “normal winter” is forecast into spring, predicted the Bay Area’s weather wizard, Michael Pechner of Golden West Meteorology. On the heels of last year’s milestone rain and snow totals for much of Northern California and with residual high lake levels going into fall, a normal winter would fill most recreation lakes for summer camping, boating and fishing and provide good winter conditions for snow sports in April.
More rain and snow area headed to Northern California on Tuesday, although the storm won’t be nearly enough to make up for what’s been a relatively dry January.
The National Weather Service said rain is expected to start falling at around 7 a.m. Tuesday, just in time for the morning commute. Light snow should hit the Sierra Nevada a couple of hours later, said NWS forecaster Craig Shoemaker.
A major storm system that has plagued the Pacific Northwest with heavy snow and ice is moved into Northern California on Thursday. The brunt of the storm slammed the Bay Area to Fairfield, around 9 a.m. Sacramento got its fair share of heavy rain around 10 a.m. The heaviest of the rain lasted about an hour, with continued rainfall expected through 1 p.m. As the storm system moves through the valley, the Sierra and Coastal range will be dealing with heavy snowfall through Friday morning.
A storm currently along the California coast is loaded with moisture and will slam the northern part of the state with inches of rain and yards of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the first couple of days of December.
The storm will be double-barreled in nature with the first part set to slam Northern California into Monday afternoon. The second phase is likely to focus on Southern California during Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Snow, rain and strong winds will make travel conditions difficult in parts of the West this week from an powerful storm that will slowly spread toward the central and eastern United States into this weekend.
The intensifying storm is located in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and will move into Oregon and Northern California on Tuesday. This storm will undergo bombogenesis before it moves inland. This means it will be a bomb cyclone since its pressure will drop at least 24 millibars within 24 hours, making it an intense storm when it strikes.
It’s been a tough few years for Northern California, disaster-wise. The north state has been hammered in quick succession by catastrophic drought, intense flooding and rampaging wildfires. While it’s reassuring to know such extreme events are historically uncommon, they’re also not simply a result of bad luck.
Scientists have only recently begun to understand that they share a common natural link.
Say what you will about Russian interference, it just might get us Northern Californians out of this year’s precarious fire season.
Meteorologists are forecasting that around Nov. 10, a strong jet stream originating from Russia is likely to undercut the dominant high-pressure ridge sitting off the coast and provide much-needed moisture to the West Coast.
“Now the question is, how confident are we?” said Brent Wachter, a fire meteorologist with the North Operations Predictive Service. “Not very. But there’s a glimmer of hope.”
Next month, the Northern California community of Paradise and will commemorate a somber anniversary: On Nov. 8, 2018, the town burned to the ground. Nearly 11,000 properties were erased in the deadliest, most destructive wildfire in state history, which took 85 lives.
Now, as California braces for peak fire season, the most extensive post-fire cleanup it has ever taken on is nearly complete. Crews have hauled off more than 3.6 million tons of debris — twice what was removed from the World Trade Center site after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City.
