February's first storm was on its way out of San Diego on Friday, but it's the first of many expected to bring showers to San Diego County in the days to come. After a few dry days, the next bout of rain moves in on Sunday, according to forecasters.
Scattered showers will continue Friday as the storm system continues to move east, the National Weather Service said. Then, Saturday is expected to be mostly dry.
A flood watch continued until 10 a.m. Friday for our coastal areas, a high surf advisory continues until 6 a.m. Saturday and a wind advisory will be in effect from 10 a.m. Friday until 4 a.m. Saturday for our mountains.
Locals breathed a collective sigh of relief on Thursday as a feared rerun of widespread flooding endured by the county last week failed to materialize. At midday Friday, the city of San Diego announced that it was rescinding a prepare-to-evacuate warning it had issued on Wednesday for low- lying neighborhoods hardest hit last week by the previous poundings of heavy cloudbursts, including Encanto, Mission Valley, Mountain View, San Ysidro, Sorrento Valley and Southcrest.
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"Over the past 10 days, city crews worked nonstop to clear culverts and channels along approximately four miles of Chollas Creek, completing the work ahead of yesterday's rain," a statement from City Hall asserted. "Emergency repairs were also conducted to fix structural damage on several concrete stormwater channels."
In light of the predicted imminent arrival of another significant storm, however, officials advised the public against letting its guard down.
"With a forecast of additional rain coming next week, starting Monday ... Mayor (Todd) Gloria has asked the public to remain vigilant and prepared," the statement added. "Local forecasts ... indicate that a slow- moving storm will bring two to three inches of rain on Monday and Tuesday."
"Now is not the time to remove your sandbags," Gloria said during a news conference on Thursday. "We can't predict Mother Nature, she's unpredictable."
For a full list of sandbag pickup locations across the county, click here.
Another storm system is expected to reach Southern California by Sunday bringing some widespread heavy rain through Wednesday, the NWS said. The heaviest rain will occur on Monday.
The storm is expected to bring some flooding to the area along with strong winds and high surf, the NWS said.
Thursday's fast-moving Pacific storm brought more widespread winter rainfall, blustery conditions and concerns about flooding to the San Diego area Thursday. But the system was far less severe than the one that hit last week.
Just before noon, parts of North County San Diego were inundated by heavy showers and flash flood warnings were issued. About an inch to an inch-and-of-half rain had fallen in north coastal areas by 2 p.m. Thursday.
Similar rainfall amounts were seen in the inland valleys. About a half inch of rain fell in the area between Poway to Mount Woodson while more north in the Escondido to Fallbrook area, more than an inch of rain fell.
February's 1st storm
San Diego's highest mountain peaks saw the highest rainfall totals.
More on our rainfall totals, here.
Rainfall Friday is expected to range from one-tenth to one-quarter of an inch near the coast to as much as 1 to 2 inches in our mountains. The snow level is expected to fall to around 4500 feet with a few inches of snowfall possible in the mountains, the NWS said.
FRIDAY
- Coast: chance AM shower, then drier, low 60s
- Inland: chance AM shower, then drier, upper 50s to low 60s
- Mountains: chance AM snow, then clearing, highs in the 30s
- Deserts: slight chance AM shower, low 60s
