Wow! Check out that stream of moisture flowing across the Pacific 😱 Wet weather continues thru the end of the week #cawx #castorm #caflood pic.twitter.com/f3ewOTIVDj
— NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) February 7, 2017
You thought this was going to happen last year with El Nino, but you were wrong.
Many towns in the North Bay as well as those in the Santa Cruz Mountains are still struggling to recover and reopen roads Wednesday following another punishing bout of rain late Monday and early Tuesday, and there is more yet to come. As the National Weather Service and KRON 4 are reporting, the flow of winter rain across the Pacific known as the Pineapple Express is going to bring another dumping of wet from Thursday into Friday before we get another break. (The rain you're seeing this morning should taper off by noon before big rain arrives again Thursday around 7 a.m., as Weather Underground predicts.)
Urban areas should likely only get under an inch of rain in this next storm, but coastal areas could see one to three inches more.
Great example of a #PineappleExpress. #AtmosphericRiver stretching all the way back to #Hawaii #castorm #CAflood pic.twitter.com/EyocD7zI4Y
— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) February 8, 2017
That's not great news for Guerneville, where flood stage was not predicted for the Russian River earlier this week, though the river has risen about two feet above flood stage as of Wednesday morning, according to KRON 4. While Johnson's Beach in Guerneville is again underwater, other problems are being caused by an overflowing Fife's Creek, with ABC 7 showing us pictures from Fifth and Church Streets in downtown Guerneville, covered in at least a foot of water.
All around the Bay the aftermath of Tuesday's rain continues to be felt with more fallen trees in SF and elsewhere, a power outage in the Castro, the closure of Highway 37 in Marin, evacuation orders in parts of East Palo Alto, and major mudslides in Greenbae, Marin County, San Mateo County, and the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Also, large amounts of runoff coming out of Lake Oroville the last month has created a big gaping hole in the concrete spillway of the dam there, as KRON 4 reports. The spillway has been closed for repair, and the lake still has 20 percent of capacity left to fill.
These warm Pineapple Express rains are not turning to snow when they hit the Sierra, but the opposite, as KRON 4 reports: They're quickly melting some of the serious snowpack that's developed over the past couple of weeks, leading to the flooding of homes in South Lake Tahoe.
The rain is reeking havoc on our local neighborhoods. @CountyElDorado is rescuing many people's homes. pic.twitter.com/1eYv8thzKp
— CHP South Lake Tahoe (@CHPSouthLake) February 8, 2017
Temperatures are expected to drop again there on Friday, with snow predicted then as well.
Previously: Overnight Storm Causes BART Delays, North Bay Flooding, Canceled Flights And More