According to the National Weather Service’s (NWS) official gauge, SF received 0.72 inches of rainfall on Thursday, with 1 to 3 inches of rain expected from Thursday to Sunday.
While SF received less rain than predicted and comparably light damage, areas north and south of SF have already experienced heavy damage from last night’s storm.
The town of Soquel, in Santa Cruz County, has experienced significant flooding and road damage, completely washing away a section of Main Street and prompting the evacuation of Soquel Village.
The powerful storm has also shut down a section of Highway 1 in Big Sur, between Ragged Point Inn in San Luis Obispo County and just south of Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn in Monterey County, according to SFGATE.
The NWS has issued a flood watch and wind advisory for the entire region from Napa to as far south as Monterey.
According to the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center the Monterey Coast, which includes Big Sur and points south, is at high risk for flooding on Friday.
As with all storm systems, there’s a risk of downed tree limbs and flooding in rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations, according to the NWS.
This current storm system is known as a “Pineapple Express, ” a type of atmospheric river that flows between the tropical water off the coast of Hawaii and drier air that sits off California. “Prevailing winds cross over warm bands of tropical water vapor to form this ‘river,’ which travels across the Pacific,” according to NOAA. “When it reaches the west coast, the Pineapple Express can dump as much as five inches of rain on California in one day.”
Stay safe out there this week, SF.