Lake County >> Following a nearly bone dry January, Lake County and much of Northern California will finally see heavy rainfall in the coming days, if the most recent weather models hold true.
National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Holly Osborne said rain could fall as soon as Wednesday evening, and the NWS site shows 100 percent chance of rain Thursday and Friday.
“For most of the area,” Osborne predicts, there will probably be “around 5 to 8 inches of rain, some of the higher peaks might get up to 10 inches Thursday through Monday.”
The rainfall will come in several waves and winds will pick up, especially on Friday, Osborne said.
“Models are still variable in terms of exact precipitation amounts, but it should be a decent rain event for much of Northern California,” according to a statement by the NWS released Tuesday afternoon.
Sustained winds in general will be around 10 to 25 mph, with gusts of 45 mph for most of the county, but Osborne said that number could be higher in areas over mountain ridges. The NWS anticipates localized urban and small stream flooding, potential for power outages from breezy and gusty southerly winds and potential for debris flows near wildfire burn scars.
The upcoming storm is known as an atmospheric river, a big moisture plume referred to as a “Pineapple Express” that comes from the tropics. The conditions are similar to that of the mid-December storm system that brought some much needed showers to the drought-stricken state. Boggs Mountain received the highest rainfall in the county at nearly 11 inches, and the lowest was recorded in Kelseyville at 5 inches.
However, “this particular storm coming up looks like it’s going to span several days, which wasn’t the case during the last storm that saw roughly 10 inches of rain in a 24-hour period,” county emergency services manager Marisa Chilafoe said.
Clearlake was hit with such heavy rainfall in December that the city declared a state of emergency, and about 15 roads throughout the county were closed because of severe flooding.
The new year, however, did not have such a wet start.
Clearlake saw only a fraction of an inch of rain in January at 0.08 of an inch, Osborne said. The average January figure is 6.45 inches of precipitation, followed by 5.91 inches in February.
With heavy rains predicted through the weekend, Chilafoe encourages residents to visit the Lake County Office of Emergency Services Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LakeCountyOES for the most up-to-date information. She also suggests residents should prepare their homes by having emergency supply kits ready and securing outdoor items such as outdoor furniture and trash cans.
PG&E advises residents to stay away from a downed power line and assume any fallen line it is energized. Call 911 to report the location of the downed line, then 1-800-743-5002, PG&E’s 24-hour emergency and customer service line.
As for the Clear Lake water level, the December shower brought the Rumsey gauge out of the negative numbers. The dramatic storm pushed levels to 2.75 Rumsey. Since then, the pace has slowed. As of Tuesday afternoon it sits at 2.88 feet, according to California Department of Water Resources.
The upcoming rain has the potential to raise the lake level past the 3-foot mark — still below the 5.17 feet average for February.
Once the storm system passes,“it looks like it’s going to get warmer again,” Osborne said. “So on Tuesday we should start drying out in warmer temperatures higher than normal.”
