Good afternoon, Central Coast!
Tomorrow is the start of some massive changes for the state. An atmospheric river will drench the Central Coast as soon as Thursday evening.
Overall, expected rain totals have not changed too much. At this time, current rain forecasts are generally for 2-4 inches across San Luis Obispo
and Santa Barbara counties (except 5-10 inches across northwest San Luis Obispo county).
Rain rates have the potential to hit .50-1.00 an hour so there is a flood watch in place from late Thursday afternoon through Friday night.
The northwestern portion of San Luis Obispo will see the highest rainfall and flood potential.
At this time, looks like a strong advisory-level event (gusts 35-55 MPH) with local gusts in excess of 60 MPH across interior sections of these two counties. So, Wind Advisories will likely be needed for these two counties later.
As for Saturday, there will still be some scattered showers mainly in the northern portions of the area.
There is another rare chance right on the heels of this atmospheric river that has the potential to once again soak the area.
Models show more activity Monday through Wednesday which could give us an additional 1-3 inches and even higher locally.
