San Diego County had minimal rain on Saturday as the latest tropical storm Kay swept over the region.
The storm has already brought record rainfall to the county on Friday, with about half an inch near the coast and nearly 2 inches in some mountainous areas. Total rainfall was much lower when the storm dissipated over the Pacific Ocean on Saturday – between 0.01 and 0.03 inches on the coast and about 0.06 inches in the mountains at 4:30 PM, National Weather said. Service.
Late in the evening, light showers were still expected, but a previous lightning forecast did not materialize, allowing two local events to go non-stop: the San Diego State University football team v Idaho State at Snapdragon Stadium and the San Diego Padres facing rival Los Angeles Dodgers again at Petco Park.
Rain delayed the Padres and Dodgers game on Friday, making it a late night for a sold-out crowd of over 42,000. The Padres won the game with a walk-off in the 10th inning shortly after 11pm.
Muggy County San Diego was still under several warnings on Saturday night. The flood warning was in effect until 10:15 pm. and a small craft notice for boats remained in place throughout the evening. A beach hazard warning that predicts surf heights of 4 to 7 feet and strong rip currents will continue until Sunday.
The shores of Imperial Beach and Silver Strand were closed on Saturday after rain pushed wastewater from the Tijuana River into ocean waters.
Tropical Storm Kay was about 245 miles offshore and had been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone by 4:30 pm. Saturday, the weather service said. Meteorologist Phil Gonsalves said tropical storms need warmer waters, typically 82 degrees and above, to maintain their strength. The colder waters off Baja California and California were enough to slow it down.
The storm brought some relief to an ongoing heatwave, lowering temperatures into the 70s on Saturday morning, but it was in the 80s in the afternoon. This week’s heat wave hit the entire state and almost resulted in continuous blackouts.
Saturday marked the first time the state has not been subjected to a flexible warning in 11 days. The notice calls on customers to voluntarily reduce power consumption, and messages sent to millions of Californian phones to reduce power consumption have helped avoid grid overload, state officials said.
As temperatures skyrocketed statewide and reached 100 degrees in parts of San Diego County on Tuesday, statewide electricity demand surged to 52,061 megawatts from the California Independent System Operator, a new record. The system, which covers 80 percent of the state, is expected to be much lower at its peak Saturday afternoon: around 36,000 megawatts, the ISO said.
The Weather Service said the forecast for precipitation was very accurate on Friday. San Diego had 0.61 inches of rain (breaking the previous record of 0.09 inches in 1976); Vista scored 0.39 inches (no rainfall records to date from 1957); Alpine achieved 0.19 inches (record hitting 0.15 inches in 1972); and Lake Cuyamaca scored 2.03 inches (breaking the record of 0.37 inches in 1975).
The winds were lower than expected that day. However, gusts of winds from 30 mph to 100 mph ended up knocking down some power lines and trees across the county.