The accumulated precipitation forecast for the next five days provided by the European Center is stunning, with roughly 5 inches in the high terrain and even two inches in San Francisco. This is a time of the year that California is normally quite dry.
Looking forward ten days, the totals get even more impressive. Moderate precipitation even gets down to LA, and some mountain locations will experience 6-9 inches.
Want to be impressed? Most of California will be hit by MORE THAN 500% of normal precipitation (see below)
Let me reiterate, this is a period when California is normally quite dry. To demonstrate this, here are the historical probabilities of getting 2 inches in 7 days in San Francisco. Has never happened in late May before. It WILL this year. Other sites show the same thing--this kind of heavy rain in late May is very, very unusual, if not unprecedented.
The implications of this liquid bounty is enormous. California's reservoirs are not only way above normal, many are nearly up to capacity (see below)
Soil and fuel moistures are above normal and the heavy rain and massive snowfall will push off wildfire season by several weeks at at minimum and quite possibly more. This is very good news for us in the Northwest, since we received substantial smoke aloft from California during the past two years. Expect less of that unwanted California import this summer.
And although California will get for more than our region, plenty of rain will make its way up to us. The forecast precipitation total for the next 48 hr is substantial, particularly in the central and northern WA Cascades, where snowpack totals were low (see below). Expect soil moisture and streamflows to move upward substantially there.
And more will fall after that.
from Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2019/05/deluge-in-california.html
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