Light debris flows and localized flooding possible during Santa Barbara County rain event

We are bracing for multiple rainmakers, set to roll through Santa Barbara County over the next week. With showers erupting Friday evening, The Office of Emergency Management along with our First Alert Weather Team and the National Weather Service really have their sights set on late Sunday night into early Monday.

“At this time we don’t see any characteristics of any one of the storms that matches what what we were seeing with 1/9,” said Mark Jackson, NWS Meteorologist, Oxnard and Los Angeles.

That being said, the risk for lighter debris flows and localized flooding still remain, with sundry night’s storm prompting a Weather Advisory.

“We have a series of storms essentially uninterrupted from Sunday on through the week, we have another problem and that is the potential for just regular type flooding that could occur anywhere in the county,” said Rob Lewin, Director, Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management.

Following the County’s Ready, Set, Go plan, we’re in the “Ready” phase. If you live below the burn or debris flow risk areas, be prepared to take action if the situation changes.

“Folks don’t need to take any action tonight to leave unless they feel threatened of course but they always need to be prepared to leave if they are in a debris low risk area,” said Lewin.

Officials are keeping a close eye on high intensity short duration rainfall and what will happen as the ground gets more saturated into the week.

“It doesn’t really increase potential for debris flows once we get into more rain in the middle of the week that potential could be there at any time during these series of storms,” said Jackson.

Both Lewin and Jackson point out, when looking at the Thomas Fire burn zones, the threshold doesn’t change due to multiple days of rain.

“The debris flow rates are the same 0.8 regardless of when they occur, it could be the first storm or the last storm but as we have an accumulation of rain, the ground gets saturated, the water starts flowing at higher intensity into the creeks and channels and they can overflow and that can cause regular flooding,” said Lewin.

Lewin says the Storm Risk Decision Team has been meeting everyday and the National Weather Service will be closely tracking these rainmakers with the Office of Emergency Management overnight.