Once again, Napa is in for quite a bit more wind and rain Friday night and into Saturday. Light rain is expected throughout Friday with the most intense rainfall occurring overnight into Saturday. Saturday will rain off and on with another band of heavier rain occurring later in the day Saturday. The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Watch starting Friday evening through late Friday night. A Flash Flood Watch means that conditions may develop that lead to flash flooding. Flash flooding is a very dangerous situation and the NWS advises us all to monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action should Flash Flood Warnings be issued.
The City's sandbag operation will open at Memorial Stadium, 1340 Menlo Avenue, today (Friday) at 3PM. Please note: The regularly scheduled sandbag operation that would have been normally held at the Corp Yard this Saturday will now be held at Memorial Stadium. The sandbag operation will not be staffed today, but will be staffed tomorrow starting at 9am. Shovels and bags are provided, but the public is encouraged to bring gloves. Here is a link to our Sandbag page: https://www.cityofnapa.org/299/Getting-Using-Sandbags
The river is not predicted to rise to flood level but there may be issues with local storm drains and streams. Additionally, there will be high winds with the risk of power outages.
Police, Fire, Public Works, and Parks are all on call to monitor the storm through the weekend. Crews will be ready to respond to emergencies related to the expected wind and rain.
As with all storms, we encourage everyone to be prepared in the event of a power outage or other event due to weather.
Additional Information from the National Weather Service:
* A powerful cold front will bring heavy rain to the region. Rain rates will approach 1 inch per hour during the frontal passage. The heavy rainfall over a short amount of time will likely inundate storm drains with rapid rises on small creeks and streams. Rainfall totals of 1-2 inches in the valleys, 2-3 inches in the hills with local amounts up to 4 inches will occur over a 6-12 hour window of time.
* The Friday evening commute will be adversely impacted with flooding roadways and ponding of water expected. Do NOT drive through flooded roads.
* Main stem rivers such as the Russian, Napa and Carmel rivers are NOT forecast to exceed flood stage.