Hear that? That will be our meandering summer coming to an abrupt close late Monday night October 12 as remnants from typhoon Melor will get sucked up by the westerlies and shuttled to the Pacific coast which will be combined with a low pressure system out of Alaska. Anything associated with ‘typhoon’ or ‘tropical storm’ takes on added immediacy. An unusual storm for October, the National Weather Service has put out the following warning for central and northern California:

RAIN AND INCREASING WIND WILL BEGIN IN THE NORTH BAY MONDAY
AFTERNOON…SPREADING SOUTH MONDAY NIGHT. TUESDAY AND TUESDAY
NIGHT SHOULD SEE THE HEAVIEST RAINFALL AND THE STRONGEST WINDS.
RAINFALL AMOUNTS COULD REACH 1 TO 3 INCHES ALONG THE COAST AND IN
THE VALLEYS. IN THE HILLS…RAINFALL AMOUNTS WILL RANGE FROM 2 TO
4 INCHES IN THE NORTH BAY…WITH 4 TO 6 INCHES IN THE SANTA CRUZ
AND NORTHERN SANTA LUCIA RANGE NEAR BIG SUR. LOCAL AMOUNTS UP TO
8 TO 10 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN THE SANTA CRUZ AND SANTA LUCIA RANGE.
WINDS TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT WILL INCREASE TO 20 TO 40 MPH ALONG
THE COAST AND IN THE HILLS. GUSTS TO 60 MPH ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE
AREAS. STRONG SOUTHERLY WINDS MAY DEVELOP IN THE NORTHERN SALINAS
VALLEY AND SOUTHERN SANTA CLARA VALLEYS WITH THIS STORM.

If you will remember the windstorm of January 2008 that wreaked havoc with trees in to homes all over SoCo, the storm will not be as bad as that. However, with forecasted pressure gradients of around 22mb (the ’08 storm was a whopping 30mb gradient from Santa Barbara to Arcadia) it bears watching, especially over mountain areas where the timber is thick.

You can bet PD photogs will be out and about documenting if things get weird.

Stay tuned….

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