Posted on 01/19/2010 10:14:40 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
A Huntington Beach police officer checks out an SUV that winds blew onto its side in the parking lot of Peter's Landing Marina in Huntington Harbour. No one was in the vehicle when it tipped over. (Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times / January 19, 2010)
The second of four rainstorms forecast for Southern California pummeled the coast this afternoon, with gale-force winds and at least one tornado lifting boats in Orange County 30 to 50 feet, causing serious flooding across the region and promoting a new round of evacuations.
But forecasters said the worst is yet to come, in the form of a stronger, colder storm set to hit the L.A. area Wednesday evening. Authorities plan to evacuate 489 homes in the mudslide-prone foothill areas including La Cañada Flintridge on Wednesday morning in advance of the storm. Those evacuations are expected to remain in place until Monday.
"With the first two storms, we got lucky," said Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. "Wednesday could be horrendous. Monday we got the right jab. Tuesday we got the left jab. Wednesday we could get the haymaker to the chin."
Two fatalities have been blamed on the series of storms so far. An El Cajon woman was fatally crushed this afternoon when the passing storm uprooted a tree, which fell on her. On Monday night, a 100-foot tree crashed to the ground, crushing a Frazier Park man and his home.
Today's storm was brief and intense, pummeling coastal areas with hail, ice, thunder, lightning and powerful winds for about two hours before giving way to sunshine and rainbows.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Burbank Airport has had a rough day...
first two Southwest 737s hit by lightening, now a plane icing up and circling around to melt it off.
I know that is pretty wet for your area. My sister in FResno doesn’t even own a rain gauge...
I got a bumper crop of weeds but now the wind and rain has knocked ‘em all down. I need a rent a goat.
—
Emergency Alert
local warning.. Tornado warning
Santa Clara County ‘til 230 PM down Morgan Hill way, south of San Jose.
hail, heavy rain activity, band of thunderstorms passing thru
Damn, Looks like Soggy City Estates at this rate. your forecast looks wet too.
Another possible waterspout heading for Hermosa Beach.
Be thankful you don’t live in Oregon. The State would declare it “wetlands” and you wouldn’t be able to go near it. On second thought, are there any delta smelt in there?
Getting heavy rain now...very steady!
I just checked the stats on the California storm so far this week and the highest wind and wave readings were not affected yesterday or today. Obviously the big story yesterday was the tornadoes; today it is the snow, with several ski resorts reporting in with more than 4 feet of snow already. The breakdown is shown below. But the big story the next few days will be storm surge (which is rare there) and low pressure (it'll probably make your ears pop).
The lowest pressure ever measured in the state is 28.85" Hg according to Chris Burt, author of Extreme Weather. As of this hour, the pressure is already 28.92" at Crescent City in the northernmost part of the state (and 28.88 on the Oregon coast). But tomorrow night is when the big storm swings in further south, and if you believe the NMM forecast model, it will be 28.80" on the central coast, breaking the all-time record (in other words, a stronger storm has not hit the state in recorded history!).
Click the pic to see more records.
Rain let up for a bit,...but just started up heavily with wind....
Tornado rips through Costa Mesa neighborhood--Video
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COSTA MESA, Calif. (KABC) -- Tornado warnings were out for parts of Orange County this afternoon, and at least two funnel clouds came ashore, causing damage. One was in Costa Mesa.
Many heard the warnings that a tornado might be heading their direction, but a lot of them dismissed it thinking that tornados don't happen in California. This may not be Kansas or Oklahoma, but around 1 p.m., folks in Costa Mesa got a chance to feel what it is like to live in tornado alley.
"It was something like out of a movie," tornado witness Holly Moro said. "It was black, it was pitch black outside and just crazy. It was unbelievable."
Radar From California Tornado/Waterspout
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UPDATE: Check out satellite shots on the CIMSS blog. I will get back to broadcasting the "greatest hits" (waves/winds/rain/snow) of this week of California storms this evening. Michael on our Facebook page points out a couple of interesting factoids via the NWS: 1. Some locations and even the entire state could set low pressure records this week, and 2.) A rare storm surge is being forecast for the coast (in addition to 20-foot waves onshore!).
What was probably a bona fide waterspout (which came onshore as a tornado) hit between Long Beach and Huntington Beach Tuesday afternoon. Some videos and photos of the flooding and damage are available on the LA Times site. ABC7 claims to have photos of the actual tornado in a video, and there are pics via Twitter (1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5) but as you'll notice on the LA Times site, some of those may be hoaxes. I'm surprised there weren't more pictures, but the tornado may have been rain-wrapped. Here's a radar shot; hover over the image to see the annotation showing the possible "hook echo" and the mesocylone's rotational signature. Again, this was a very impressive-looking thunderstorm by California standards. Tornadoes are rare in California but there were 73 twisters in Los Angeles & Orange Counties between 1950 and 2009; nothing stronger than an F1 since 1983.
LOOPS: REFLECTIVITY | STORM-RELATIVE VELOCITY* | SRV ZOOME
What gives?
Drove from Orange County to USC in 50 minutes during all that. I was amazed by how I got through so fast.
No idea....
Rain coming down heavy again!!!
Have had company today and wasn’t able to follow the weather, other than watch it rain , rain, rain here!! What is in store for tomorrow??No rain now......in Eagle Rock.
THE PERIODS OF STRONGEST WIND AND RAIN WILL BE FROM 10 AM TODAY THROUGH LATE TONIGHT...AND AGAIN THURSDAY INTO FRIDAY...AS A COUPLE OF STRONG COLD FRONTS MOVE THROUGH.
So storm #4 tomorrow...will be colder too.
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