State braces for floods, mudslides, chaos as giant weekend storm rolls in

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle / January 1, 2016

A roaring atmospheric river bearing down on California is set to deliver the type of punishing rains that only happen around once every quarter century, forecasters said.

Emergency agencies and residents in the path of the fire hose are bracing for what’s expected to be disastrous weather-related chaos when the storm hits this weekend.

“We’re prepared for significant flooding,” said Brad Alexander, a spokesman for the California Office of Emergency Services. “It’s a similar approach that we have with all major emergencies. Everyone is available, and we have our emergency playbooks at hand.”

While the northern two-thirds of the state will be washed over from Saturday to Monday, a relatively narrow swath of highly concentrated moisture in the epicenter of the storm is taking aim south of San Francisco in Santa Cruz County and near Big Sur in Monterey County.

MORE: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Brief-dry-out-gives-Bay-Area-chance-to-prepare-10837146.php

Make your plans folks ...

[The River]

1. Expecting 10"-15" in the foothills

northeast of Sacramento. The first soaking was bad enough.

"The second storm is (by far) the one of greatest concern, as it will take the form a moisture-laden and slow-moving atmospheric river. While the details with this second system are still somewhat uncertain, virtually all numerical forecast models are painting a very broad area of extremely high precipitation totals over the next 6-7 days across the entire Sierra Nevada mountain chain and also in the coastal mountains from the Oregon border south to Monterrey County."
http://weatherwest.com/