Two major storms are coming to California
No matter where you are in California, major storms are headed your way in the coming days. Forecasters are warning of successive atmospheric rivers that could lead to flooding, mudslides and road closures between today and Tuesday.
“We could very well receive February's total normal precipitation within the first five days of the month,” forecasters at the National Weather Service's San Diego office wrote early Monday morning.
California needs the rain to avoid drought. The state has received only about 81 percent of the total average precipitation expected this time of year, and snowpack is only 32 percent of average, according to state data. Water levels in the reservoirs are still above average for this time of year due to the abundant rain we received last winter, but they are not nearly as high as they were a year ago.
The first storm hit the California coast last night and is expected to bring widespread rainfall and gusty winds to Northern California today before weakening and moving into Southern California tomorrow.
The blow will be bigger in the north than in the south, the forecasters told me. Parts of Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties are expected to receive two to four inches of rain, and the Santa Cruz and Santa Lucia Mountains could receive six inches of rain, according to Nicole Sarment, a meteorologist with the Bay Area office of the National Weather Service . The expectation is that the north coast will get this up to five centimeters of rain today and tomorrow.
Flooding is expected in low-lying areas because the soil is already saturated from previous storms, experts say. Heavy winds can down trees and power lines.
One to three feet of snow is expected to fall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains between Wednesday and Thursday, which could force the closure of Interstate 80 and Highway 50.
“Mountain travel is strongly discouraged during this time,” said Katrina Hand, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Sacramento.
The storm is forecast to be a moderate atmospheric river, and not nearly as intense as last winter's series of storms that led to widespread flooding and historic amounts of snow in the region, according to my colleague Judson Jones, a meteorologist and reporter for The New York Times.
The first of two storms this week is not expected to cause much damage in Southern California, said Mike Woffard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Oxnard. Rain will fall in Los Angeles Thursday morning, but forecasters “don't really expect anything more than just typical rainy days,” he told me.
But the second storm could be more intense. Forecasters at the Weather Prediction Center said it was “increasingly likely” that a strong weather system, possibly a “significant atmospheric river event,” would hit California late this weekend and early next week.
That storm, Woffard said, will likely bring four to eight inches of rain to the Santa Monica Mountains and San Gabriel Mountains, and will likely cause flooding, mudslides and rockslides.
When it comes to storms this rainy season, “this will probably be the strongest yet for the LA area,” Woffard told me.
For more:
Tell us
If you live in the Bay Area, chances are you cross a lot of bridges. Which one is your favorite, and why?
Tell us at CAtoday@nytimes.com. Please include your name and the city in which you live.
And before you go: good news
Dozens of chefs in California are among the semifinalists for this year's James Beard Awards.
Contenders in the Best Chef in California category include Geoff Davis of Burdell, a modern soul food restaurant in Oakland; Jihee Kim of Perilla, a Korean banchan shop in Los Angeles; and Sayat Ozyilmaz of Dalida, an adventurous Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco.
Sylvan Mishima Brackett, the chef at Rintaro in San Francisco, and Rashida Holmes, the chef at Bridgetown Roti in Los Angeles, were named semifinalists in the Outstanding Chef category, among other vibrant Golden State restaurants and bakeries including Kiln, Fat + Flour and Lazy Bear also made the list.