Stormwatch 2010!

Nearly all of California (and Oregon, too) is coping with a series of major El Niño-type rainstorms this week. The first came through the Bay Area yesterday, with heavy morning rain that dwindled away to nothing by the afternoon. The next storm arrived early this morning, dumping nearly 2 inches of rain, but again gave way to blue skies by the early afternoon.

Until the line of thunderstorms swept through, that is. They turned day into night in a hurry. Here is a view from my office on a typically clear afternoon:


(That ghostly thing in the left side of the image is not a hideous, multi-limbed creature striding in from the north bay; those are reflections in the window of some office plants. My apologies.)

From mostly sunny to this, within a span of about 15 minutes:


(It was even darker than the picture shows, because the camera tried to compensate for the low light.)

Ever fickle, here is what the storm is offering us just now:


Tomorrow's storm is expected to be the worst of the three. That is cause for some concern, because the benchmark has been set pretty high so far.