This coming week (8/20-21) is going to be extremely wet in the desert areas of So California and Nevada. Check the weather reports for the areas you might be thinking of visiting. Furnace Creek is forecasted to get about 4”.
I was just imagining how people from the east and gulf coasts might look at the rain totals and think, “that’s nothing!” But in a lot of these areas there’s almost no vegetation holding the soils in place (compared with the coasts, anyway) and they’re looking at 48 hour rainfalls exceeding what they usually get in a year. I’m expecting some pretty significant erosion. On which note, I’ve often wondered about how water erosion has formed a lot of our desert landscapes. Specifically, is erosion dominated by normal seasonal precipitation or by rare, cataclysmic storms? I suspect the latter, but I’m not sure how that hypothesis could be tested. Any geologists out there?Foy said:Welcome to the East Coaster's world of tropical storm warnings. I just read this is the first such warning from NOAA to Sou Cal?
I hope that is the case.teledork said:Unless something dramatically changes this afternoon this storm is likely to go down as one of biggest, best hyped nothing burgers in Mono County history.
Per NOA, DVNP Is closed, including 190. Washouts reported.craig333 said:The weather folks were showing the radar. Scattered showers over the area followed with a story on a wind driven grass fire. I have a feeling we won't see much of the damage for a while yet. Until people get into the backcountry and see what's been washed out.
South of Bishop is a mess (395 is closed) but it seems Mono County was north and west enough to be spared. It rained lightly but steadily much of the night - the louder sound was simply the roof dripping. We got substantially more rain (and a more dramatic river rise) during a thunderstorm just a couple of days ago. (It is interesting that the emergency information portal for the county alters the scale for the river gauge so it looks more severe)Wandering Sagebrush said:I hope that is the case.
additionally, the severe wind event at the local reservoir separated the marina docks from their moorings. Boats and docks floated away.ski3pin said:Julie and I just returned home from an extended adventure. We learned from a friend that the remnants of the hurricane/tropical storm produced a severe wind event here that ripped several fruit laden branches off two of our peach trees. I will survey and work on the damage in the morning. If I go look now I will not be able to sleep tonight.