MARINA — After a long dry spell, the National Weather Service forecast calls for a rainy pattern to return to the Monterey Peninsula this weekend into next week.
“The next chance of rain for Monterey will be Friday evening,” said Matt Mehle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “We have a cold front approaching from the north so we have some rain moving into the North Bay Friday afternoon and then down into San Francisco and eventually down here into Monterey by Friday evening.”
The weather service expects between a tenth and a quarter of an inch of rain in Monterey and as much as half an inch in Big Sur. The light rain is expected to let up by late Saturday morning, with the rest of the weekend staying dry with highs in the mid-50s in Monterey before another chance of rain moves in on Monday.
“We have unsettled weather for much of next week with additional rain chances and much colder temperatures,” Mehle said.
The rain is much needed as most sites in the Monterey area are about 50% of normal since the start of the rainy season Oct. 1. While February is typically one of the wettest months, the .47 inches of rain recorded at the Monterey Airport last month was only 15% of the normal precipitation amounts. All of Monterey County is in an “abnormally dry” drought status according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Mehle said none of the storms next week appear to be major storms like the one that brought flooding and debris flows to Monterey County in January.
“I just looked at some of the tools that we use to see if there’s going to be an atmospheric river, anything with a big moisture tap, and it’s just not there,” he said. “It will be beneficial when you look at the seven-day rainfall totals but nothing that’s going to be like our January atmospheric river.”
With meteorological winter now over, the chances for local rainfall totals to catch up to normal are dwindling. Mehle said there’s no sign of a “miracle March” rain pattern in the forecast to boost those totals.
“The pattern this year just does not look favorable for a ‘miracle March’ at this point,” he said. “Obviously our month just started and there’s a lot of ground left in the month, but long-range models at least to the middle of the month just show these smaller systems but nothing overly strong or with lots of moisture. Beyond that, some of the longer-range stuff is showing conditions less likely for rainfall.”
The Link LonkMarch 04, 2021 at 05:44AM
https://www.montereyherald.com/2021/03/03/rainy-pattern-to-return-to-monterey-peninsula-over-weekend-after-dry-spell/
Rainy pattern to return to Monterey Peninsula over weekend after dry spell - Monterey Herald
https://news.google.com/search?q=dry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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