New round of soaking rain, snow for California

AccuWeather

AccuWeather California Expert Ken Clark shares where more storms are projected to occur.

Transcript

00:00We have more storms on the way and what a stormy start to the month with that I

00:05want to bring in our California expert meteorologist Ken Clark. He's been

00:09working it here at AccuWeather for over four decades and he lives in Rancho

00:14Cucamonga this morning and no one knows California better than Ken. You know Ken

00:18really quickly before we get into the next storm I kind of want to take a

00:22little look at the state of California water wise here and certainly there's

00:28been no doubt that Southern California has borne the brunt of the

00:33let's call it dry weather so far this year. It really has both San Diego and

00:39Los Angeles have had only 70% of normal precipitation since last May.

00:47Nine months so you know very very dry in the south very wet in the north.

00:53Yeah in fact very wet in the north Ken. Take a look at this this is over the

00:58last five days and you know you and I were looking at Blue Canyon that's along

01:03Interstate 80 about 5,300 feet and one of the locations they actually have an

01:08observation site and I believe Ken they are already above their historical

01:14average rainfall for the entire month of February they've already exceeded it.

01:18Yeah that area had anywhere between 15 and 19 inches of rain in the series of

01:24storms. Lots of rain up there all the reservoirs are full at least according

01:30to historical averages so we're doing fine the way of water in the reservoirs

01:34snow not so much. Yeah you know Ken you were just talking about the numbers the

01:39northern Sierra doing fine right now but it's the central and southern Sierra

01:44where we do have some problems where you were talking about it's in some spots

01:48less than half of normal snowfall. That's correct that says that yesterday

01:53morning now the new numbers aren't in right so what better than that now

01:56because of the snow they had yesterday into last night and even this morning so

02:01those numbers are going to be somewhat better but still way below normal next

02:05storm coming in though will help out too. Now Ken you had made this comment last

02:09week about two weeks ago that yes there are short-term drought across southern

02:14California but there's not a water shortage explain. There's not a water

02:20shortage because of the last two winters well above normal precipitation

02:23including snow all these reservoirs are at or near at least historical averages

02:29of around 100% so we are doing fine with the amount of water that's in the

02:33reservoirs right now they're right where they're supposed to be they're right

02:37chock-full for this time of year so it's this year is not a problem it's next year

02:43we're gonna have to see what we have with way of snow cover by the end of

02:47this winter. All right Ken let's really quickly let's talk about the next storm

02:51it is on deck it's south of that upper low there it is it's going to be

02:55arriving tomorrow let's talk about rainfall from northern to southern

03:00California as I play the radar through. We're looking at probably on the

03:06average I have to an inch of rain across northern California with some of the

03:10hills around San Francisco the North Bay area could get up to two inches not

03:16gonna be like we had yesterday in the day before it's gonna be a not nearly as

03:21wet. In the mountains one to three feet of snow on average above 5,000 feet

03:25probably looking at maybe four feet in some areas. Southern California again

03:30light precipitation amounts that's good because we don't need a heavy rain down

03:34there right now but we do not anticipate any problems with the debris flows at

03:40all. And I'll tell you what with that onshore flow Ken temperatures remain

03:45cool relative humidity remains high and that like as you said over 10 days ago

03:50when you said no more fire danger for the foreseeable future in southern

03:55California. And while there is a dry period coming up this weekend and early

04:00next week maybe more rain coming by the middle of next week. That's it's a stormy

04:04pattern Ken no doubt about it. All right Accuweather California expert

04:09meteorologist Ken Clark. Ken thanks for joining us here on Accuweather Early.

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