It will be mostly sunny across San Diego County this week — until Sunday, when a potentially significant new Pacific storm will move in, dropping between 0.75 and 1.25 inches of rain from the coast to inland foothills and valleys, the National Weather Service said.
The system is expected to swirl to life in the North Pacific and could draw moisture from the subtropics, the same connection that supercharged the series of storms that have pounded the county since Jan. 22.
Forecasters said it is still too early to tell what path the next system will take. Early models show the storm hitting central California first, then sliding south. Locally, the heaviest rain is expected to fall in northern San Diego County, areas of which received from 4 to nearly 9 inches of precipitation from Sunday to Friday of last week.
The storm might not be cold enough to produce snow in the San Diego County mountains. But the system could be very unstable, possibly resulting in brief thunderstorms like the one that also pelted South County with hail last week.
Since the rainy season began on Oct. 1, San Diego International Airport has recorded 8.81 inches of precipitation, which is 3.11 inches above average. There’s a small possibility that the next system could push the total to 9.79 inches, which is what the airport averages during an entire rainy season.
The rainy season represents the one-year period that begins on Oct. 1 every year.
The calm weather expected during the next few days represents “a good time to shift flowers like ranunculus from indoor areas to outside gardens,” said Jim Horacek, manager of the Armstrong Garden Centers location in Del Mar.
