For the first time in recent history (probably ever) The Weather Channel specifically mentions Lucia, Gorda, and Cambria, the biggest town – of a whopping 6,000 – being Cambria. It is because this is where this next big storm is expected to come ashore. This will find us late tonight or early tomorrow. The last one took aim at Santa Cruz and Big Sur Valley. Now it is our turn. I am as ready as I can be. Take advantage of this break, as the next one is not due until Thursday.
Take a look at the info I added to the last post, The Calm Before the Storm, for some good info and links about this Atmospheric River.
Classic El Nino pattern. They keep waiting for the SST on a buoy near Fiji and rainfall measurements in Indonesia to align before they make the official call.
Stay safe and dry inside1
I heard that too, the intimacy of our tiny coastal towns gone shockingly world-wide.
Many years ago when a mere girl-child in Brooklyn, a rare hurricane was slated to hit. Asking the weather-wise Greek sailor boarding next door what to do (more WHAT TO DO!!!) his disdainfully delivered advice was “Well, you batten the hatches, honey.” The only things likely to fly were garbage cans; brought them inside.
Big Sur’s wilderness has potential for a different kind of uproar. I watched for 15 hours the flooding Big Sur River’s fast rise of 2011 when fire-downed trees as wide and long as bridges sluiced past the River Inn with breathtaking speed. There’s an unborn genius who’s going to figure out how to eliminate weather before we know it, and it will be the stuff of books and grainy you-tube video. I’d like to see the hurt prevented, but not our living planet’s thrilling rituals.
Safe passage through the storm and atmospheric river (and yes, they’re fascinating). It’s a totally unique landscape. Subject to the unusual everything.
Hoping all is well for those in the path of this storm. Stay safe and warm and tell us all about it.
I’d suggest to ridge top dwellers to drive your car to the highway, if possible, before the worst of the storm. That way, if you have to, you can walk out and have transportation when you reach the highway. …