SLO County is in for another soaking — and trees could start falling
San Luis Obispo County is headed for a days-long soaking that could topple trees and drop between 3 and 6 inches of rain from Thursday into Monday, according to PG&E meteorologist John Lindsey.
An upper-level low-pressure system is moving toward the Central Coast on Thursday, which “will more or less open the door to a couple more systems coming through,” Lindsey said.
The strongest of the storms is forecast for Friday afternoon into Saturday morning, Lindsey said. The area should see moderate-to-fresh gale-force winds and heavy rain — with 2 to 3 inches forecast for that storm alone.
“This particular storm has the atmospheric instability to verify quite well,” Lindsey said.
Trees could start falling during Friday and Saturday’s storm, he said. Soil is becoming soaked with water due to the high amount of rainfall, Lindsey said.
“When the soil’s saturated, root systems don’t hold on as strong as they normally would and that’s when you start getting trees toppling over,” Lindsey said.
When trees fall down, there’s a chance they’ll down power lines, and Lindsey urged everyone to steer clear of downed lines and be prepared if the electricity goes out.
After Saturday, scattered showers are forecast on Sunday and Monday, with a break expected Tuesday and Wednesday, Lindsey said. Then another wet weather pattern will start up, lasting from Feb. 7 through 9.
“It’s showing a wet weather pattern through at least Valentine’s Day,” Lindsey said of his long-range forecast models, noting that those models are far enough into the future that they can change.
Unlike storms from earlier in January, which saw a disparity between rainfall amounts in North and South counties — locations south of San Luis Obispo recorded less-than-expected rainfall while points north of the city saw expected amounts — this storm system should distribute rain more evenly, Lindsey said.
In fact, if the forecast models prove true, “We could have above-average rainfall in the first two weeks of February,” Lindsey said. “We may receive in the first two weeks what we’d normally receive in the whole month.”
Most locations in San Luis obispo County have so far received about average rainfall for the month of January, Lindsey said, and the county has a chance of seeing above-average rainfall in February.
“If we see above-average rain in February, that’ll go a long way to keep making this a really good year for rainfall,” Lindsey said.
This story was originally published January 28, 2019 at 4:37 PM.
