APPROACHING STORM PROMPTS EMERGENCY PREPARATIONS
The County of Riverside Office of Emergency Services is keeping tabs on a major winter storm, which appears to be headed for Southern California, the Inland Empire and the desert region early Friday, lingering through the weekend. It has the potential of causing some major damage here in Riverside County and throughout the region.
"We just got off a conference call with Southern Region State OES and the National Weather Service (NWS) and we were given the same basic weather scenario as outlined in the forecast below," said Mary Moreland, director of the County office of Emergency Services. "According to the San Diego NWS, Riverside County will most likely be impacted by this storm early Friday morning, followed by a break, and heavy rain again possible Saturday into Sunday.
"Since Riverside County was not impacted by fires in the same way as many of our neighboring counties, we do not have the same potential for debris flow as others; however, we are working with our county and state partners, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst." she said.
"We are pre-staging sand and sand bags (especially in the Esperanza burn area), double checking contact numbers, and putting our swift water rescue teams on standby (one east county, one west county)."
Here is the complete forecast referred to by Moreland:
Onshore flow will begin to return today (Wednesday) and December 6 as a strong low pressure system approaches the west coast. This next system looks to be very robust with rain now expected over the northern burn areas beginning on the afternoon of December 6 and southern burn areas beginning early on December 7. Rain will turn to snow at higher elevations on December 8 with rain and snow showers continuing over the burn areas through December 9.
Thunderstorms will even be a possibility. Rainfall amounts, at this time, will likely range from 1-3 inches in all areas with more favored locations in the mountains and foothills reaching 4 inches of rain. Rainfall intensities will be such that any of the burn areas have the potential for exceeding their mud and debris flow threshold. Snow levels will initially be above 7000 ft but drop to near 4000 ft by late on December 8 with snowfall totals that could reach 24 inches at higher elevations. Needless to say temperatures will trend toward well below normal over the next few days. Winds will be strong and gusty with the storms passage. Speeds may reach 60 mph at higher elevations.
In the wake of this winter storm, conditions will slowly return to normal December 10-12. Clearing skies and drier conditions with temperatures returning to normal will be the trend.
County officials are continuing to monitor weather information from a variety of sources.