A Pacific storm is expected to bring significant rainfall to San Diego County starting Friday with the heaviest expected on Saturday
The National Weather Service says the storm could drop 1.5 inches to 2.5 inches of rain at the coast and 3 inches or more in the inland valleys and foothills with up to 6 inches possible in the mountains from Friday through Saturday.
The system could also produce lightning in many areas, including Mission Valley, where San Diego State University’s football team will host Boise State at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday starting at 7:30 p.m.
NWS meteorologist Dave Munyan says the system is "volatile with some very high uncertainty” about what will happen, but chances are good for some significant rain.
The NWS says some streets and roads could become impassable due to flooding or flood damage.
Northern Lights Seen
The Northern Lights have been putting on quite a show. NOAA has issued a severe geomagnetic storm alert as it reports at least 21 states could see the Aurora Borealis this week. The Northern Lights occur when the sun's plasma interacts with the earth's magnetic field.
According to El Cajon science expert Chuck Houser, the Aurora has been visible in the San Diego area several times over the past year or two. In an explanation provided to KOGO News, Houser says that every 11 years or so, the sun goes through an “active” phase, called solar maximum, where sunspot activity is increased and the sun just gets kind of rowdy. We are in one of these “solar maximum” periods now.
Aurora occurs as solar “wind” (charged particles from the sun called plasma) collide with our atmosphere causing various elements like oxygen and nitrogen to glow beautiful red, green, and violet colors.
At high latitudes Aurora can be a common occurrence. When the sun is particularly active like now, the solar winds can increase substantially causing greater densities of these charged particles to hit earth and at a much faster speed than normal. When this happens the aurora can be pushed farther south, sometimes even farther.
(Photo Chuck Houser, El Cajon)
Photo taken by geologist Chuck Houser from Mt Laguna looking to the north. You can see the stars.