Prepare today while it's dry for the moderate to heavy rain and high wind event that will take over this holiday weekend. Another atmospheric river will saturate the state bringing life-threatening flooding and damaging winds. In San Diego, we'll have our fair share of heavy rain and gusty winds mainly impacting Saturday and Sunday nights, and Monday.
As we focus on today, it will be mostly dry, low-level clouds will gradually build and temperatures will be slightly cooler with more upper 60s and a few low 70s across the coast and valleys. We'll continue to see high surf with waves peaking this afternoon then again, this weekend. Incoming sets could get up to 12 feet with strong rip currents. A Coastal Flood Advisory has now been paired with the High Surf Advisory we've had in effect. Coastal flooding from heavy rain and high surf and winds will likely impact local piers, boardwalks and low-lying lots resulting in closures.
As clouds builds tonight ahead of the storm's arrival, we could wake up to light drizzle and showers, but the bulk of moderate rain starts in the late Saturday persisting overnight, becoming heavy at times. With this first storm, coastal and valley communities could get up 1.5", the mountains up to 2.5" and the deserts up to a few tenths of an inch.
Peak wind gusts activity will occur late Saturday into Sunday with coastal and valley gusts tracking up to 45mph, and even stronger gusts in the 60mph range for the mountains and deserts.
Sunday looks mostly dry but light showers could continue to linger. Then, Sunday night the second storm rolls in bringing another round of moderate to heavy rain and high winds through Monday, adding an inch or so to our totals. At this point, snow levels may drop to 5,000 feet bringing light snowpack to our mountains.
Overall, these storms look to impact San Diego more than any of the previous storms over the past 10 days. Given recent rain and the ground being saturated there is a greater threat of low-lying flooding along with more runoff. The threat of downed trees will also be greater as the winds pick up this weekend.
Stay with the Pinpoint Weather Team as we track these incoming storms.
Friday's Highs:
Coast: 64-67°
Inland: 66-72°
Mountains: 54-67°
Deserts: 73-76°
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