• Laura X, a prolific 85-year-old women’s rights activist and organizer in Berkeley who’s credited with getting spousal rape banned in California, lost all of her money to a Ponzi scheme while creating a million-page women’s history archive, and her friends have launched a couple fundraisers to help her get back on her feet. [Berkeleyside]
• A 66-year-old nanny in SF’s Diamond Heights was detained Friday morning by ICE agents in an unmarked car, and a judge ordered her release ten hours later, largely due to the work of immigration advocates. [Mission Local]
• Gay and lesbian couples and activists commemorated the 22nd anniversary of “the Winter of Love” at City Hall Friday, marking the landmark month in 2004 when then-mayor Gavin Newsom issued same-sex marriage licenses before the state Supreme Court later invalidated them — four years prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage federally in 2008. [KRON4]

• A woman whose car got stuck on the railroad tracks in Emeryville early Saturday morning narrowly managed to escape the vehicle before an oncoming train struck it, causing it to catch fire. [Bay Area News Group]
• The first in a series of storms is expected to hit Northern and Central California Sunday night, bringing moderate to heavy rain, followed by a colder storm Tuesday and yet another storm system Thursday. [Chronicle]

Image: Stockton Street during Chinatown's Flower Market Fair; Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Along with the heat wave that’s expected Monday, Tropical Storm Mario, which briefly died then came back to life, could hit the Bay Area late Wednesday and into Thursday. The storm might produce some dry thunderstorms and a small amount of rain that's unlikely to hit the ground.

As SFist reported, San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area are expecting 80–90 degree temperatures this week. In San Francisco, such high temperatures happen only a few days a year, when weather patterns briefly shift — calming the ocean breeze, flattening the marine layer, and reversing the wind so it blows offshore from the East Bay, per SFist.  

As SFGate reports, there’s a 15% chance that Tropical Storm Mario, which the Chronicle says is currently “steering a plume of moisture toward California,” will be adding more theatrics to the mix later in the week in the form of dry thunderstorms. Per the Chronicle, the storm died out last week and then started back up over the Pacific — just off the coast of Mexico, as the Instagram account, Rainy Day Weather, reports.

The Chronicle explains that a persistent layer of dry air near the surface will likely prevent rainfall from touching the ground. The lack of moisture could lead to lightning on Thursday and into Friday, posing wildfire risks.

Roger Gass, a Bay Area meteorologist for the National Weather Service, told SFGate his office is keeping an eye on potential fire weather concerns. “There’s a lot of variables in how these things pan out, and generally our confidence is low to moderate. But the impacts of dry lightning would be very bad for fire starts,” he said.

As a bit of consolation, the Chronicle notes that the Bay Area will be hit with mid-level cloud cover and slightly cooler temps leading up to Mario’s potential debut Wednesday night.

Image: Joe Parks/Flickr

Previously: Expect the Heat to Return to the Bay Area Monday and Tuesday

The possibility of lightning has led to Red Flag Warnings Monday and Tuesday in some of California’s northernmost counties, but the low-pressure system that’s bringing them will mostly just bring more fog to San Francisco.

It’s only Monday morning, but needless to say, everyone's already just thinking about the big three-day holiday weekend ahead. And we're starting to get some reliable weather forecasting on what this week — and more importantly, this weekend — will look like in the Bay Area and beyond.

The Chronicle has the surprising report that thunderstorms are a possibility in parts of Northern California this week, particularly early in the week. You would not need to worry about these thunderstorms unless you’re driving as far north as Eureka, but both wet and dry thunderstorms are in the forecast for Shasta, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties, and across the northern Sierra Mountains. But that also means wildfire risk, and those areas are under red flag warnings today and tomorrow.

The same low-pressure system that could bring lightning up north will also bring the Bay Area a rather cool and foggy week. KGO’s seven-day AccuWeather forecast has San Francisco with temperatures in the 60s and 70s this week, with temperatures in the East Bay about ten degrees warmer.

Unfortunately, Friday, July 4 is currently expected to be the chilliest and foggiest day of the week. It’s a far cry from last year’s July 4 when SF temperatures were in the 80s, while the East Bay and North Bay saw some temperatures above 100 degrees. This year’s July 4 in SF is expected to see SF temperatures in the low 60s, with much of the day just in the upper 50s. Parts of the East Bay may only see temperatures as high as 80 degrees.

In other words, for San Francisco at least, it will likely be another July 4 where the fog will inhibit your view of the fireworks.

Related: This Is What Thursday's Fireworks Looked Like In SF [SFist]

Image: Lightning bolt in the dark night sky in close up. (Getty Images)

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Sunday for two people still missing after a 27-foot powerboat capsized during a sudden storm on Lake Tahoe Saturday around 3 p.m. The incident resulted in seven confirmed deaths and two hospitalizations, with a total of ten people onboard.

Update: As of Sunday night, local authorities confirmed that a seventh body had been recovered from the lake, with one person still missing.

According to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, the boat was caught in extreme weather conditions on Saturday, including wind gusts over 35 mph and waves reaching 8 to 10 feet, as reported by the Chronicle and earlier today on SFist. These hazardous conditions arose rapidly, catching many boaters off guard during what had been a calm day.

Two survivors were hospitalized with hypothermia and other injuries. Authorities have not yet released the identities of the deceased or confirmed whether any passengers were wearing life jackets. As KRON4 reports, the lake's surface temperature was just over 58 degrees Fahrenheit at the time of the storm, with an air temperature of 38 degrees and a near-freezing wind chill, according to National Weather Service data.

As South Tahoe News reports, the Coast Guard said it covered more than 390 square miles over 12 hours before halting the search Sunday at 10:55 a.m. “Suspending a search is always a difficult decision to make and weighs heavily on each Coast Guard member involved,” Cmdr. David Herndon stated. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones.”

The capsized boat was identified as a Chris-Craft Launch 27, a high-performance vessel known for its sleek design and stability. The area where it sank — near Rooster Rock — is known for deep underwater drop-offs, exceeding 300 feet in some places.

Witnesses reported the weather shift as abrupt and extreme. “My wife was needlepointing, I looked up and it was game on,” said Brian Swenor, a longtime boater. Others described swells as high as 10 feet damaging or sinking numerous boats across the lake.

Chris Williams, a captain for Tahoe Sports, said his fleet endured “severe wave heights that have never been seen on Lake Tahoe.” He reported that two of the company’s boats broke free from their pier and were washed ashore, though no passengers were injured.

Estimates of storm-related damage vary. Some locals claimed up to 100 boats may have sunk, while others put the number closer to 10, with dozens more damaged. At Camp Richardson Marina alone, officials reported two sunken boats and seven or eight others that broke loose and ended up onshore. Most were rentals and sustained significant damage, said Angel Tapia of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, who also noted efforts underway to contain petroleum spills and prevent further environmental harm.

Tapia’s team has been removing fuel from compromised vessels to reduce ecological impact. On Sunday, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning to residents near Camp Richardson about possible contamination in their water systems due to hazardous materials from the marina.

The storm came without much warning, though some experienced locals chose to stay off the water after seeing early forecasts. “If you have 10 knots before noon, you don’t go out,” said Mary Laub, a Minden resident.

The National Park Service stresses that even during summer, Lake Tahoe’s cold water can pose serious risks. Without a life jacket, a person may lose motor function in under 10 minutes.

Search efforts on Sunday included sonar-equipped boats and dive teams, but no further recoveries were announced. The Coast Guard and local officials continue to investigate the cause of the capsizing.

Image: U.S. Coast Guard

Upgrades to San Francisco’s emergency outdoor warning system keep getting delayed while the price continues to skyrocket. Meanwhile, emergency responders are tasked with physically going to Ocean Beach to alert residents about tsunami warnings.

It’s been three years since SFist’s last post on the topic, so it’s that time again when we ask, “Remember the Tuesday noon siren? And is it ever coming back?”

Last December, the Chronicle wrote that the December 5 tsunami warning prompted Supervisor Peskin to stress the importance of completing the upgrade to San Francisco’s emergency outdoor warning system, which was taken offline for upgrades in 2019 due to cybersecurity concerns.  

It was revealed in the same Chronicle article that London Breed's office had determined the whole system actually needed to be replaced, which was projected to cost around $20 million. An upgrade of the old system was projected to be around $3 million back in 2022. It’s also unclear whether Mayor Lurie is interested in pursuing the upgrade, as he declined to comment on the Chronicle article.

According to ABC7, during a tsunami warning in January 2022, first responders had to physically go out to Ocean Beach with loudspeakers to alert residents. That said, the Department of Emergency Management said that they wouldn’t have activated the sirens for that particular tsunami anyway, which was considered low risk.

While many residents use AlertSF for their emergency notifications, as of ABC7’s article post date in February 2024, only 195,000 people out of more than 800,000 residents were signed up. While Emergency Management says they can also push alerts to residents who haven’t opted in, cell phones aren’t always the most reliable means of communication in an emergency.

For anyone unfamiliar, up until San Francisco’s outdoor warning system was taken offline, the city tested its 119 1940s-era sirens every Tuesday at lunchtime, blasting them across city intersections. Back in 2009, this author featured a short documentary by SF72 starring Cesar Santos, who read the accompanying weekly announcement at the time. (We even remembered Santos’s name 16 years later. That’s how much we liked this video.)

The system was taken offline in 2019 after an incident in Dallas raised concerns — hackers managed to activate all 156 sirens and blast them in 15 90-second intervals over the course of a weekend, according to SFGate. The incident prompted San Francisco officials to take the system offline while they upgraded it, which was initially supposed to take two years, until COVID hit, and here we are.

In a recent Reddit thread pondering when and if the siren will return, one user recalls their coworkers referring to the siren as the "Taco Tuesday Alarm," and another remembers their boss using the siren as a way to remind the staff it’s time for the weekly staff meeting, as if Cesar Santos himself was beckoning them to the conference room.

Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

KTVU meteorologist Bill Martin started as a weekend weatherman at KTVU in 1992, also did the weather for KRON4 and KPIX, and delivers his final SF TV news weather forecast on KTVU Thursday night as he surfs off into retirement.

KTVU meteorologist Bill Martin was living in a van when he got his first weatherman gig in 1991 at KFTY Channel 50 in Santa Rosa, as recalled by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. The UC Berkeley and SF State grad had never worked in television before, yet beat out more seasoned TV meteorologists for the job. A year later, Martin filled some pretty big shoes at KTVU, taking over for the retiring Pat McCormick — a local cult hero, because McCormick had also hosted the popular local shows Dialing for Dollars and the children’s puppet series Charley and Humphrey.

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A post shared by KTVU Channel 2 News (@ktvu2)

And now it is Bill Martin’s big shoes that need to be filled, as KTVU’s chief meteorologist announced last month he would be retiring. And tonight, Thursday, February 27, Martin will broadcast his final weather reports on the KTVU evening news.  

Martin will deliver weather reports on Thursday’s 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm, 10 pm, and 11 pm broadcasts. So you've got five more chances to see Bill Martin do the weather on KTVU, but tonight's 11 pm news will be his final outing on KTVU FOX 2.

“I’ve never been anywhere else,” Martin said (referring to the Bay Area market) when announcing his retirement in the January 23 broadcast above. “I started in the Bay Area market. But I think about Dennis (Richmond), I think about Elaine (Corral), I think about Randy (Shandobil), and I think about Bob MacKenzie and John MacKenzie, all the people we’ve known over the years who’ve come through this place.”

Martin also had brief stints with KPIX and KRON4 in the early- to mid-1990s, before returning permanently to KTVU in 1996.

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A post shared by Bill Martin (@billmartinktvu)

Indeed, it’s been a tumultuous couple of years for the great titans of the golden age of KTVU news. The legendary Dennis Richmond passed away at the beginning of this month, we also lost his fellow anchor Leslie Griffith in 2022, and of course, there has been that whole Frank Somerville thing.  

And now the retirement of their three-decade meteorologist Bill Martin. But true fans will still be able to catch Bill Martin doing the weather, as he’ll continue doing his daily Bill Martin’s Weather Show on Youtube. Today’s episode is seen below.

Related: Beloved Longtime KTVU Anchorman Dennis Richmond Dies at Age 81 [SFist]

Image via KTVU

• Famed 1980s cop Bob Geary, who carried a ventriloquist dummy, has died. Geary and his sidekick played the classic “good cop/bad cop” routine to help diffuse tense situations. [Chronicle]
• Recent Salesforce layoffs will impact 153 San Francisco employees. The company will be laying off over 1,000 workers by April 25th, as it continues to hire new salespeople to sell its AI products. [Chronicle]
• Bike lanes along San Mateo’s Humboldt Street are scheduled for immediate removal after a unanimous vote during a recent San Mateo City Council meeting. The bike lanes were installed two years ago in response to serious crashes in the area and were funded through a $1.5 million federal safety project. [SF Gate]
• Oakland’s budget crisis could lead to a cut in funding to police oversight agencies. The agencies were created in 2016 in response to scandals involving officer misconduct and lack of accountability. [Oaklandside]
• A fifteen-year-old boy was arrested for yesterday’s shooting in Redwood City [CBS News]
• The two men who were killed in the Sonoma County floodwaters have been identified. [KRON4]
• The evacuation order for low-lying areas along the Russian River has been downgraded to a warning. [CBS News]

National:

• Google has removed the pledge from its website at some point during the last week that proclaims that the company will not use AI for weapons or surveillance. Google responded in a blog post, “we believe that companies, governments, and organizations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.” [CNN]
• Last weekend, the Army Corps of Engineers opened the dams of California’s Lake Kaweah and Lake Success, which are located near the Sierra Nevada and help store water for the farmland of the eastern San Joaquin Valley, releasing more than 2.2 billion gallons over three days. POTUS claimed that if the releases had happened earlier, the Los Angeles fires could have been prevented, despite the fact that the two waterways do not connect to the aqueduct that serves Southern California. [SF Gate]
• Mark Pocan, a U.S. Democratic Representative from Wisconsin, has announced his plan to introduce a new bill with the apt title, “Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy.” “After more than $20 billion in federal contracts, there’s no way Musk can be objective in what he’s doing. Protecting the taxpayers has to be our number one priority,” says Pocan. [TechCrunch]

Video of the Day:

May your weekend be full of window pet sightings:

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A post shared by KQED (@kqed)

Image: Ferry Ride, 2023, Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Image: Rainy day busking companion, 2024; Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A storm that brought flooding across the Bay Area this weekend, punctuated by a false alarm tornado warning for San Francisco residents just before 6 am Saturday morning, brought an actual tornado to Santa Cruz County.

That tornado warning turned to be no false alarm for people living in the small Santa Cruz County town of Scotts Valley, though the tornado did not actually arrive until the afternoon.

At around 2 pm Saturday, a surprise tornado touched down in the city's commercial district, bringing wind gusts with peak speeds of 90 miles per hour and a small twister that was seen moving across a parking lot. Over about five minutes, the tornado knocked down power lines, overturned several vehicles, and uprooted trees before then fizzling out.

Five people were injured, including a Cal Fire battalion chief, after his work truck ended up being among the vehicles flipped by the tornado.

Multiple road closures and an overnight power outage followed, with most of the damage being dealt with by Sunday morning.

Scotts Valley police Captain Scott Garner, in a press release, praised his department and other agencies who worked throughout the night to restore normalcy for residents.

"Thanks to these collective efforts, all roads and businesses in the  City of Scotts Valley that were scheduled to be open today are now fully operational with power," Garner said in a statement.

Tornadoes are a rarity in California, with most experts stating that an average of 11 of them touch down in the state per year. Scotts Valley residents, understandably, expressed varying degrees of shock in their statements to the media when asked about their reaction to the event.

“I’ve never seen something like that in Santa Cruz,” one person told local outlet Lookout Santa Cruz. “And I’ve lived here my whole life.”

Photo via Cali/X

Here comes the rain again, about to fall on our heads like a new emotion.

At least, that's according to the National Weather Service's latest weekly forecast.

NWS is predicting a significant chance of rainfall this week for the entire Bay Area, which would mark the region's first meaningful amount of precipitation since May.

A 40% chance of showers is being forecast for today, accompanied by wind gusts of up to 22 miles per hour, followed by sunny weather on Tuesday.

Wednesday night has the highest probability of rain this week, which sits at about 80%, with smaller chances of rain remaining on the table until Saturday night.

Highs are expected to be in the mid- to high-50s throughout the week across the Bay Area, with lows expected to be in the 40s in most areas.

Rain was initially also forecasted for Sunday, but was delayed by the presence of former Tropical Storm Kristy's final lingering remnants, according to the San Francisco Chronicle's newsroom meteorologist, Greg Porter.

"Kristy’s remnants slowed the forward progress of a cold front that was expected to sweep through the region Sunday morning. The cold front was already moisture-starved, as its parent storm was far to the north," Porter wrote. "Kristy’s leftover energy only drained more moisture from the system."

Image: National Weather Service via X

There’s only one lane open on State Route 84 a.k.a. Niles Canyon Road west of Sunol, because part of the other lane has simply broken off and fallen into Alameda Creek.

We noted this morning that the latest batch of winter storms knocked down trees across the Bay Area, and could even cause tornadoes in the Central Valley. The latest round of storm-induced travel trouble is near the Alameda County township of Sunol, where only one lane of the two-lane is open on State Route 84 (Niles Canyon Road for that stretch). That's because the other lane has cracked open and fallen onto Alameda Creek according to NBC Bay Area.

Caltrans is referring to this as a “slipout,” and they say it happened sometime around 5 am Monday morning. KGO reports that Caltrans is doing one-way traffic controls between Pleasanton Road and Washington Boulevard to keep traffic moving in both directions, for now. But the agency also says that both lanes will be closed as of 5 pm Monday, with no estimated time at which the highway would reopen.

"When the roadway gets eroded, the ground underneath of it kind of washes out, then the pavement slips down right, or becomes unnavigable,” Caltrans spokesperson Bart Ney told KGO. “So we can't have people driving on it, so that's what's going on out there right now. and we're going to need to make a repair before we can open it all the way back up."

The KGO segment above has some pretty stunning aerial footage of the cracked highway falling into the creek. And it sounds like it may be a while until this stretch of highway if fully open again.

"It's safe to traverse in one direction,” Ney added. “But what we'll have to do as soon as we get them out there, is to have construction engineers take a look at what needs to be done in order to repair the road then when we know what that is, then we can go ahead and take the steps to get the materials and the crews in to rebuild it."

There is a recommended detour along Palomares Road in the adjacent Castro Valley.

Related: Marin County Roads Get Warped And Buckled After This Week’s Storms [SFist]

Image: @CaltransD4 via Twitter

Wednesday’s continued rainstorms caused traffic jams and commute messes across the Bay Area, while the Oakland Zoo closed up shop in heavy rains, and more than 200 flights have been delayed today at SFO.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the worst of the current Bay Area rainstorms is expected to be finished, with dry weather expected from Thursday through the long Christmas weekend. But San Francisco did receive an inch of rain in Wednesday morning’s deluge, and as seen below, a Coastal Flood Advisory remains in effect today.

Here in SF, the most lasting effect of Wednesday morning’s storms is that flooding at the Embarcadero has forced the SFMTA to replace the F-Market streetcars with buses, at least, between the Ferry Building and Fisherman’s Wharf, in both directions.

And the rains have forced the closure of the Oakland Zoo all day Wednesday. Refunds to ticket holders will be automatic, and they might still reopen for Glowfari Wednesday night. If you have tickets to Wednesday night’s Glowfari, keep an eye on the zoo’s social media channels for any announcements.

Sure, San Francisco International Airport had a nice little rainbow Tuesday. But Thursday and Friday are expected to be the two busiest travel days of the holidays at SFO, per KGO. The flight delay landscape remains a mass with well over 200 flights delayed Wednesday according to the website FlightAware.

The weather up in the Sierra Nevada is obviously even crazier, and the California Highway Patrol informs us there were boulder slides Tuesday night that spilled onto Highway 50, some five miles from South Lake Tahoe. Those lanes have since been reopened, but the Highway Patrol advises that “Caltrans will be out there blasting the larger boulders” on Wednesday.

Similar rockslides temporarily closed Highway 50 in April 2021 and March 2022.

At this point, the Bay Area has likely seen the worst of the weather we’re going to see this week (fingers crossed). But the National Weather Service warns that Thursday will bring a high risk of floods and mud in Southern California, something  to keep in mind if you may be traveling there for the holidays.  

Related: Hundreds of SFO Flights Delayed, Rain Floods Some SF Streets [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 04: The Golden Gate Bridge is seen through a rain covered windshield on January 04, 2023 in San Francisco, California. A massive storm is hitting Northern California bringing flooding rains and damaging wind (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Meet Hurricane Jova, being described as “Western Hemisphere's strongest hurricane so far in 2023,” and presents the possibility of Category Five hurricanes in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans simultaneously.

It was just two-and-a-half weeks ago that Hurricane Hilary drenched parts of southern California, even having been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit the state. And now another hurricane is threatening to arrive in California, as the Chronicle reports that a new Hurricane Jova is speeding through the Pacific Ocean, currently some 500 miles southwest of Baja, California.

Hurricane Jova, (pronounced “HO-vah”, like Jay-Z) seemingly came out of nowhere Wednesday, turning from a tropical storm to a Category Five hurricane in less than 24 hours. It’s winds reached sustained speeds of 160 miles per hour Wednesday night. Though as of Thursday morning, its wind speeds dropped slightly to an average of 155 miles per hour, making it a Category Four.

Still, the Chronicle points out that “The storm’s strength is expected to fluctuate,” though eventually weaken Thursday evening.

Thankfully, Accuweather says “the storm poses no immediate threat to land.” The Bay Area is not likely to see any rain from this system, though there will likely be rain from the outer bands of the hurricane in Monterey and San Benito Counties on Saturday. Las Vegas might even get rain from the storm. too. But it’s not anticipated to be anywhere near as bad as the impacts of Tropical Storm Hilary, which walloped several southern California cities with floods, as Hurricane Jova is so far out to sea.

“It’s going to remain quite far away from us,” National Weather Service Bay Area meteorologist Sean Miller said to the Chronicle Wednesday.

But Southern California may see some flooding from high surf, with he the highest risk in areas like Long Beach.

"Jova will track to the northwest through the weekend and is not expected to bring direct impacts to land," according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham. "It will, however, bring rough surf and rip currents to the west coast of Mexico and potentially into coastal Southern California."

Accuweather is calling Hurricane Jova “the Western Hemisphere's strongest hurricane so far in 2023 ... for now.” That “for now” qualifier is added because there is yet another hurricane, Hurricane Lee, currently heading toward the Atlantic Coast. And as Accuweather points out, if Jova regains Category Five status, and Lee becomes a Category Five too, it would be the first time in recorded history that Category Five hurricanes occurred simultaneously in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Those records go back to 1960, when meteorologists started maintaining satellite records on hurricane strength.

Related: Tropical Storm Hilary Makes Landfall in Southern California Sunday, With Heavy Rains, Landslide Risk, and Evacuations [SFist]

Image: Accuweather

Thousands of little sea blobs called “by-the-wind sailors” have appeared on Orange County and Los Angeles-area beaches over the last couple of weeks, and biologists think their unusual arrival could mean there’s another El Niño brewing.

An unusual story out of Los Angeles TV station KTTV this week, as that station reports that thousands of “strange little blue creatures washed ashore.” They look like jellyfish, but they are in fact Velella velella, or known by the common name “by-the-wind-sailors” because they travel by riding wind currents. They’re not dangerous, but their appearance by the thousands on these beaches is definitely out of the ordinary. (A mass beaching of the creatures on local beaches happened in 2014, and there was something similar at Ocean Beach ca. 2003.)

A few have been spotted closer to home, according to Marin County’s Point Reyes National. “Velella velella are flat, oval-shaped hydroid polyps (cousins of the jellyfish) that live in the open ocean but are often seen washed up on beaches in Point Reyes National Seashore... In the spring and early summer months when strong winds push them ashore,” the National Park Service explains in a Facebook post seen below.

According to the Bay Area News Group, the arrival of these creatures could indicate a coming El Niño pattern. “Typically, it means we’re seeing a change,” Dana Wharf Whale Watching boat captain Todd Mansur tells the News Group, referring to the appearance of these by-the-wind-sailors. “This could be a sign there’s something subsurface we’re not seeing from our sea temp gauges and sticking our toes in the ocean to check the temperature, that might be showing signs of this change.”

The change that may be coming is the arrival of another El Niño, or the warming of sea temperatures (as opposed to La Niña, which is the cooling of sea temperatures). “El Niño and La Niña are naturally occurring phenomena that result from interactions between the ocean surface and the atmosphere over the tropical Pacific,” according to the National Weather Service. “Changes in the ocean surface temperatures affect tropical rainfall patterns and atmospheric wiñds over the Pacific ocean, which in turn impact the ocean temperatures and currents.”

It’s already been a wild weather year, and the emergence of a strong El Niño could mean a powerful hurricane season in the tropical Pacific. National Weather Service meteorologist Brandt Maxwell tells the Bay Area News Group, “That’s probably the biggest thing that happens in the summer, greater incidents of the hurricanes, that could bring up the surf in Orange County – if it happens.”

And while this winter that just ended proved that La Niña can bring a drenchingly wet rainy season to the Bay Area just as easily as it can produce a mild or dry one, longtime Bay Area residents can't forget strong El Niño years like 1997-98, which also produced months of near-nonstop rain.

Forecasters won't be able to say with certainty that an El Niño pattern is forming until mid- or late summer.

Related: New Breed of Jellyfish With Nearly 40 Tentacles Discovered in the Depths of Monterey Bay [SFist]

Image: (Getty Images) Velella are stranded by the thousands at Pacific Beach, Washington in early spring. The Velella are washed into shore on warm spring tides. Their deep blue color is bleached away by the sun as they slowly decompose. Velella are a relative of the Portuguese man o’ war and are actually a community of organisms that function as one. They are also known as sea raft, by-the-wind sailors, purple sail, or little sail.