The latest rainfall totals show up to a couple of inches have fallen already. Totals so far range from almost 3 inches at Lake Pillsbury to less than an inch at the Indian Valley Reservoir. Those numbers will certainly rise–as much as 7 inches until the system clears the area on Wednesday. Gusty winds are also possible. The National Weather Service reports a gust of nearly 100 miles an hour at 1100 feet elevation in Humboldt County In Ukiah, a 38 mile and hour gust was reported at the airport.
The National Weather Service continues a flood watch for parts of the area through Friday afternoon, including the Russian River near Hopland flooding is possible. The rise will be rapid, The river was at 1.7 feet Wednesday afternoon, and the forecast calls for a crest at flood stage of 15.0 feet on Friday, Flooding of Highway 175 is expected at the approaches to the Russian River bridge. Expect flooding of cropland on the right bank of the river. Other areas that normally go under in storms like this will see flooding too but so far, forecasters aren’t predicting any major river flooding.
There have been several reports of roads partially blocked by mud and rocks, including on Covelo Road heading into Covelo, and on Highway 20 in Lucerne. CHP and local law enforcement say if you’ll be driving this morning, you should stay alert and never try to get around barriers even if the road looks safe to travel on. Caltrans reports no compete closures but says it continues to monitor the situation
PG&E’s latest information says there are scattered outages in both Mendocino counties with a few dozen customers, mainly in the Fort Bragg area waking up to no power. The utility says it has crews standing by to quickly respond to any outages once conditions are safe.
Advice for TESLA drivers during the wet weather. There have already been a couple of reports in Mendocino COUnty of Tesla’s spinning out on wet roads. The company says rain can significantly impair the performance of their advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) like Autopilot, which rely heavily on clear camera and sensor readings to detect obstacles and navigate, making it harder for the system to accurately interpret the environment in wet weather, leading to potential accidents. They’re advising against using any form of automated self-driving.
The offshore conditions have been hazardous from the storm with giant waves up to 30 feet at some markers. The Coast Guard says it is ready to answer any offshore distress calls. They’ve used the extreme conditions to their advantage over the past few days–sending out crews into the worst of it to train for any emergency calls that come in.
Police in Fort Bragg are looking for information about a crash. They’d like to speak with witnesses of the collision at Franklin and Hazel Streets between 12:45 and Noon on Wednesday. You can contact the PD if you saw anything in that area.
A large Auto Parts chain is pulling out of California. Advance Auto Parts says closing all 139 locations in the state is part of a corporate restructuring. The nearest store closing is in Santa Rosa.
