Mother Nature Preparing Another Blow For Santa Cruz Mountains
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Having already been drenched during an October surprise storm a week ago, Santa Cruz Mountain residents were preparing for another wet weather front to roll through the area on Thursday.
But before that storm hits, the National Weather Service says Bay Area residents will see light rain from a weaker weather front Monday afternoon into Tuesday.
Forecasters predicted that 0.35 of an inch could fall in San Francisco by Tuesday with 0.78 of an inch possible in Santa Rosa, 0.28 of an inch in Concord and just 0.15 of an inch in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The fury of the second weather front, meanwhile, will be unleashed in an area ranging from the Santa Cruz Mountains south to Santa Barbara.
As much as 4 inches of new rain could fall from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Big Sur hills. Both regions were still recovering from wildfires, bringing the risk of landslides to any significant rainfall in the area.
It will be the second significant rain storm in October.
Over the weekend of Oct. 15, a storm front pummeled the Santa Cruz Mountains, Corralitos near Watsonville had 9.7 inches of rain. Ben Lomond had 8.7 inches and
Ormsby Road near the Loma fire epicenter had 9.3 inches of rain.
"It's all about how much coverage does the soil still have," said Drew Coe, Cal Fire's forest practice program monitoring coordinator. "If you see bare soil, the chances of your watersheds and hillsides for erosion is very much higher."
Coe said people who live in and around the areas of the Loma Fire, which burned nearly 4,500 acres in Santa Clara County, and the Soberanes Fire, which burned more than 132,000 acres in Monterey County, should pay particularly close attention to weather forecasts this year.
"The most critical thing is if you happen to be in a very high-risk area, it's better to just get out and evacuate if there's bad weather coming," he said
The weather had some potential bad news for Bay Area Trick Or Treaters on Halloween night. The current weather models say there is the potential risk of more rain by and around Halloween into next week.
