AccuWeather's Ken Clark warns of heavy rainfall starting in Northern California before spreading south. Heavy rain over the burn scars from last month's fires could lead to mudslides and flooding.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Joining right now Accuweather California expert meteorologist Ken Clark who's been with Accuweather
00:05over four decades and a resident of Rancho Cucamonga and you know Ken this storm is unlike
00:14any other storm I think that we've seen in in California this year in that it's going to bring
00:19rain to central and northern California but the heaviest rain for once is going to be in southern
00:25California. Right all winter the atmospheric rivers have always been aimed at the northern
00:30third or northern half of the state and we haven't had a lot of rain in southern California
00:35even with the last week's storm it still ended up being not a great event but certainly it helped.
00:41This is different the some of the highest rainfall totals will be in central and southern California
00:47like the southern coastal range of mountains down into southern California. San Diego less
00:54than half an inch of rain so far this winter they're going to easily have the biggest storm
00:59all winter long. All right John all right Mr. Ken let's take a look at the future radar here it all
01:04begins in northern California later on today I'm going to play through this and I want you to
01:09describe what you're seeing as this storm works its way south we begin at six o'clock tonight.
01:16Off and on light rain will continue across central and southern California won't be continuous but
01:21it'll be off and on heavier rain spread into northern California during the overnight hours
01:25tonight and that heavy rain will gradually spread its way southward during the day tomorrow probably
01:31the heaviest rain will be ahead of the cold front that arrives tomorrow afternoon in in San Francisco
01:36on the central coast tomorrow late in the day and in the evening hours in southern California
01:41there can be thunderstorms with the cold front there can be thunderstorms behind the cold front
01:46in the bay area as cold air a lot moves in a lot going on here and all said and done we're talking
01:52a lot of rain and very impactful rain. All right let's take a look at the amounts Ken you and I
01:58were just talking about this I mean this looks like a solid two to four inches of rain from
02:03well just south of the bay area through through most of southern California you know even San
02:10Diego looks like a solid inch inch and a half maybe two inches. Yeah I think one to two inches
02:15very likely in San Diego these rainfall amounts have been seen since last March 10 months ago
02:21so this is how big this event is and of course all eyes are on the burn areas and I got to stress
02:26there those areas are very susceptible to orographic lifting of the these kind of storms
02:33or bringing more rain than let's say right along the immediate coast and we could be seeing some
02:38rain amounts in the mountains five to eight inches before it's all said and done. I think there's
02:43going to be some serious serious problems here in the burn areas with mudslides debris flows
02:50as a very dangerous situation setting up for those people. And you know Ken that's the short-term pain
02:55and there's going to be a lot of pain with this but you know what in California when it rains it
02:59usually pours there is some long-term gain though because of course we have the short-term drought
03:06across southern California and then let's talk about the importance of the snow that's going to
03:11be falling in the Sierra. Oh my there's gonna be a lot of snow in the Sierra above 6,000 feet we're
03:17talking numerous feet of snow maybe five six seven feet of snow at ski level resort level
03:24and through the central and southern Sierra again southern Sierra has not had a really big storm this
03:30winter this will be the first really big storm and this will be blizzard conditions as well
03:35some wind gusts 50 to 70 miles per hour and some of the mountaintops with the storm moving in.
03:41AccuWeather California expert Ken Clark 40 years of experience nobody knows California better than
03:47Ken. I had my umbrella out too for today. Buckle down and stay safe here over the next couple of days.