Satellite imagery of the weather system off California:

[Are_grits_groceries]

@JeffHarrison:
Satellite imagery of weather system off California... #remotesensing

Whoa!

[malaise]

1. Holy Shite

Looks like a hurricane with serious rain ahead of it

Stay Safe California DUers

[edhopper]

2. A typhoon in winter

yeah, no Climate Change going on here. Move along.

[B2G]

3. It's not a typhoon

Cool satellite image though!

[edhopper]

5. Cyclonic storm then

same difference.

[Brother Buzz]

22. They're not the same - typhoons and hurricanes have sustaining winds exceeding 74mph

This a tropical storm at the moment, but things could change

[mnhtnbb]

4. Yikes! Making up for nothing for so long.

[MineralMan]

6. I talked to my parents yesterday.

They live in Ventura County and have a small citrus/avocado farm. My father reported 2.5" from the storm so far, with more in the nearby mountains. The Sespe River is running, for the first time in over a year, and the ditch that passes by his farm is running with water.

The rain so far will eliminate a scheduled irrigation, saving them some cash.

I'll get another report this afternoon when I call.

[NV Whino]

7. Sharknado!

[shanti]

8. Apparently, they heard our bellyaching

It poured all day yesterday, but it's still not nearly as much as we need.

[Are_grits_groceries]

9. Be careful what you wish for. nt

[Captain Stern]

12. Completely off-topic, But the gifs in your sig line always crack me up. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Local NWS person called it a cold hurricane.

I would like to quibble. It is the pacific and in the pacific they are called typhoons. But I know why they are using the more familiar term in the Western Pacific.

[petronius]

13. 'Typhoon' is the term for the northwest Pacific. In the northeast Pacific, where

California is, they are referred to as hurricanes.

Of course, referring to this system as any form of tropical cyclone is poetic license...

[Go Vols]

14. They are called hurricanes in Hawaii also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hawaii_hurricanes

[petronius]

18. Yep - the East Pac / West Pac divide in this context would be

the International Data Line (~ 180 W). I would think that most hurricanes affecting Hawaii would have originated in the northeast Pacific basin, but that's just a guess...

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. And why I posted the warnings before the system hit 48 hours ago

it is leaving a real mark,

San Diego is expected (and on track) to get the rain total of a month, in 36 hours.

[roody]

11. I finally started catching some rain

in 220 liter olive barrels from Greece. $17 at Friedmans. Three fit in my tiny truck, so I'll get 3 more today.

[denbot]

15. Holy Smokes!

We live along the L.A. coast and my wife says that the rain is pretty light near the beach so far. That cyclic storm is pretty well defined, and to me seems unusual.

Hurricanes and Typhoons are warm water storms generated by warm moist air rising from the ocean. Winter storms coming from the Bering Sea are generated from low pressure systems, so by definition I don't believe the can be called hurricanes or typhoons.

[Duer 157099]

16. Will Faxai make it to California?

http://classic.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/wp201403.html

[warrior1]

19. wind map

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/1000hPa/orthographic=-132.21,32.88,587

[petronius]

20. Phenomenal! Thank you for posting that!

I noticed that if you click the little "Earth" link it opens a control panel - check out the plot for the 250 mb height (~ jet stream level). And it gives ocean currents as well - what a great teaching tool...

[Go Vols]

21. +1