A Ten Inch Week.

Technically, it was over 7 plus days, with rain starting mid day last Thursday, and ending early this Friday morning.  Also, technically, it was 10.81 inches of rain on Monte Fiore in Scotts Valley.  All my local west side rain gauges seemed to get over whelmed at some point during this past week's systems.  And technically, it did not rain at all on Wednesday, so all that rain fell across less than seven days total, if you cut out the break day.  Regardless, wow.  And it feels nice to be at the back end of it today.  The rain has subsided.  We may see a few broken showers during the day today, but that is not likely.  The main AR is well south of us, currently impacting from Big Sur to Santa Barbara.  It is also more wide spread and less defined than yesterday.  Meaning, the rain is not as intense inside the band.  A secondary band is impact NorCal near Cape Mendocino.  That could shift south through the day, but it is not likely to get much further south than Jenner.  That is not to say it could not move this far south; just not likely.

Van in hole in road.  Skyline Road. Why I suggest staying off the mountain work arounds when the highway is closed.   Photo:  Alicia Lopez-Nulph, pulled from Mercury News.

We are looking forward to a return to sunshine for the weekend, and for the next five days.  We need that time for the ground to have water percolate down toward the aquifers.  While much of the state is out of surface water drought, we still need to fill those underground caverns.  Recent NASA data suggests that the Central Valley has sunken during the drought due to loss of ground water, up to 20 inches in some locales.  Not sure if refilling will see the ground swell again, but it is concerning.  Speaking of surface water drought, things continue to improve, with 38% in moderate drought, 10% severe, and less than 2% in extreme.  No where in the state is listed as Exceptional, and 12% is abnormally dry, with the remaining 41.5% (I rounded off) completely out of dry conditions.  This is as of this past Tuesday, so next week we should see even greater impacts, and I would expect to move completely out of the Extreme category.

The next five days will feel awesome.  Low 60s to start tomorrow, but each day warming a bit through Tuesday, topping out in the upper 60s.  I still hold hopes for hitting 70F, but I might need to sit in the Costco parking lot to feel that.  Rain expected to return by next Thursday, and from what I have seen, it could be another wet period lasting 5-10 days.  This time colder.  More to come.