The Fat Lady Has Not Sung.

Rain has already moved into the region.  Light drizzle has been reported in SF, and light snow showers are currently falling along the Sierra Crest.  Winter is back folks.  Today will sit in the mid 60s and it will get even cooler for the weekend.  Rain comes in ernest tonight with over an inch forecast to fall before sunrise on Friday mornings.  NOAA is calling for up to two inches, but that seems a bit high.  Regardless, it will be a hefty amount.  After having several weeks of dry weather, the ground is set to absorb a good amount of water, but, and here is a big but, the water ways are still very active draining the ground already.  And the ground, while not super saturated, is still pretty wet.  So, watch out for flash flooding in the usual areas by Friday morning.

Fall Creek drainage, early February 2017, Felton, CA.  The redwoods love water.

Rain continues to fall during the day Friday, although lighter during the morning hours.  A second wave of the storm arrives mid day on Friday, and we could be seeing close to another inch of rainfall by sun down.  60F for a high.  Rain continues Friday night, but will lighten considerably by midnight.  Another quarter inch of so of rain.  And it continues into Saturday morning, tapering mid to late morning.  Fairly windy through the period, but at its worst tonight and Friday.  Near three inches of rain possible by the time it wraps up on Saturday.

The clouds clear out late Saturday, and we could have a cold night in the low 40s.  Cold for April.  If you have any plant seedlings started for your garden, think of protecting them with a floating row cover.  This will not be cold enough to kill seedlings, but could potentially stunt them.  Nothing worse than a pepper plant that never grows more than 10 inches tall.  Okay, I guess something are worse, but this is one you can make a difference about.

Sunny on Sunday (makes sense), and back up in the mid 60s.  Near 70F as we start the work week.  Yet, by Tuesday, we begin to see the effect of our active pattern, with the high dropping back into the mid 60s.  I am watching the forecasts for mid to late next week as a storm brushes by to our north on Wednesday and the potential for another big system to hit us for Thursday into the Easter weekend.  That poor bunny might have a night of rain to contend with whilst hiding her eggs.

Surf continues to hit solidly, but the new local weather conditions are wreaking havoc on it.  It was an amazing late March, early April run.  And it continues.  It will be big today and over the weekend as both long and mid period swells peak.  Add in the developing WSW wind swell and you have some serious surf.  It all should settle and clean up a bit early next week, as we see a smallish, but big enough to be fun, south arrive early next week and potential for another long period WNW mid next week.  Hopefully during those sunny calm days before the storms.