:"Between 1 and 3 inches of rain are likely on Saturday and Sunday in much of the Bay Area and along the Central Coast, with 2-4 inches likely on Monday and Tuesday....

The city has closed its Community Resource Center but libraries are all open on Friday with their normal operating hours. Community members who lose power at their homes and would like a warm place to visit, relax and charge devices can come to the library, the city said in an online update."


If the storm's likely Saturday-Tuesday, "normal" operating hours won't help much since most PA libraries are still closed from Saturday evenings until Tuesday.

Now might be a fine time to think about finally restoring full pre-Covid "normal" operating hours.

What I want to know is how much rain Palo Alto got per storm and total this rain season? It seems impossible to get this info from newspapers or online.

When I look, SJ is mentioned and then RWC with very different amounts, but no towns inbetween.

Anyone know how to find this info for Palo Alto?

I used to have a plastic rain gauge jammed into the back yard to keep track - wish I still had it.

The Merc shows Palo Alto has gotten 11.45” of rain since Oct. 1, 2022.
That’s great to know.

Rainfall in Palo Alto is not collected and runs into the creeks and the Baylands. Our ground is saturated and any more rain will just cause more pooling, flooding and eventually enter the Bay.

I read that some places it is illegal to capture and use rainwater for various outdoor uses, but that could be incorrect. However having rain butts and storage could be helpful for summer watering. At the same time, that can become breeding ground for mosquitoes, so it is a hard call.

Whether we get an inch or more this weekend, it would be nice to have a couple of weeks without any rain as saturation point in our parks as well as in the foothills could lead to further problems. Trees are falling because the root systems are so wet in saturated ground.

The water is needed but it is needed in our reservoirs, not flooding our streets and running straight into the Bay. What we really need now is a couple of weeks of dry, sunny weather so that we can repair damage and dry out.

In LA, any BP's for new buildouts or remodels require containers to save rainwater. They're pretty hideous. Web Link

It seems to me that the ground is saturated and roots are crying for help, but the real problem is the wind that keeps blowing them literally out of the ground. Which is a bone of contention for insurance that doesn't cover floods but does cover wind damage. Which came first, the wind or the flood? Which factor is the catalyst for a claim? I think this year's storms will have insurance companies fine tuning what they will not cover.