Warm and dry weather this week

Overview Significant warming and drying will develop this week as moderate to strong offshore flow develops. Gusty Northeast flow will develop on Tuesday and continue through early Wednesday. The gusty offshore flow will produce above normal temperatures and much lower relative humidity mid week into next weekend.

CONFIDENCE

·  Moderate to High

TIMING

·  Heat Concerns

o The warmest days will be Thursday through Saturday

·  Fire Weather Concerns

o Tuesday Night and Wednesday Night

LOCATIONS

·  Heat Concerns

o Entire Bay Area

·  Fire Weather Concerns

o North and East Bay Hills

IMPACTS

*Hazards:

·  No watches/warnings/advisories are in effect at this time. 

*Impact 1 (Fire Weather) :

·  Combination of drying fuels...gusty winds and poor humidity recoveries will create heightened fire weather concerns. 

·  Relative humidity recoveries will be lowest Wednesday Night and early Thursday Morning.

*Impact 2 (Wind):

·  Gusty northeast winds will develop Tuesday Night and peak early Wednesday Morning. Northeast winds will gust in the 25 to 35 mph range.

*Impact 3 (Heat):

·  Gradual warming will occur through next weekend, but the warmest days will be Thursday and Friday.  

·  High Temperatures on Thursday and Friday will be 70s and 80s along the Coast/Bay and 80s and 90s inland. Highs will be 10 to 15 degrees above normal. 

·  See attached image for more details.

NWS will continue to provide email updates if the forecast changes.

Monitor NWS Monterey Facebook and Twitter for further updates.

Central California Earthquake - M4.7

M4.7 - CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

Preliminary Earthquake Report

Magnitude	4.7
Date-Time	28 Sep 2014 20:45:13 UTC 28 Sep 2014 13:45:13 near epicenter 28 Sep 2014 12:45:13 standard time in your timezone
Location	36.627N 120.840W
Depth	6 km
Distances	41 km (25 mi) SSW of South Dos Palos, California 43 km (26 mi) WSW of Mendota, California 47 km (29 mi) S of Los Banos, California 48 km (29 mi) ENE of Soledad, California 224 km (138 mi) SSE of Sacramento, California
Location Uncertainty	Horizontal: 0.4 km; Vertical 1.2 km
Parameters	Nph = 23; Dmin = 6.2 km; Rmss = 0.11 seconds; Gp = 130° Version = 0
Event ID	nc 72316031

For updates, maps, and technical information, see: Event Page orUSGS Earthquake Hazards Program

Know Your Neighbors, Get Involved In Community Preparedness

 

Whether you just moved into your neighborhood a week ago or you’ve lived there for 25 years, getting to know your neighbors has always been an important part of a functioning society. It can also be helpful in a crisis, because after a disaster occurs, the people in closest proximity to you – and the people who will be able to help you most immediately – are your neighbors.

They may need your help as well. Research reported by FEMA says that people often are not as prepared for disasters as they think they are. Forty percent of survey respondents said they did not have household plans in the event of an emergency, and nearly 60 percent did not know their community’s evacuation routes. Almost 20 percent of responders said they had a functional disability that would affect their ability to respond during a disaster, but only 25 percent of those people have made arrangements to or alerted others to their disability in case of an event. In a different survey, 46 percent of people said they expect to rely on people in their neighborhood for assistance in the first 72 hours after a disaster.

There are several ways to find out what you can do to help. If you live in an area that is known for disaster events or has had them recently, it can be as simple as asking them how they dealt with any previous incidents. Their feedback can teach you what precautions are the most effective for the situation.
You can also organize your neighbors with the help of local service groups such as Citizen Corps Councils, Neighborhood Watch teams, Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), as well as local fire and police departments and emergency management agencies. Their input can help you figure out your neighborhood’s biggest needs.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency also recommends hosting meetings with family, friends and neighbors to plan service projects, set service goals, and learn about existing local emergency response plans. Community-based organizations often lack the capacity to manage large numbers of volunteers, so they need individuals to organize themselves and work alongside them.

The Community Preparedness Toolkit, available at www.ready.gov, offers specific steps and links to resources to help you take a proactive role in making your neighborhood safer, more resilient and better prepared.

Nobody can do it alone - become part of the team and build a stronger Monterey County!

Monterey County to Test Emergency Notification System as part of National Preparedness Month

Monterey County to Test Emergency Notification System as part of

National Preparedness Month

If you get a phone call, text message or email from Monterey County's emergency notification system on Tuesday, September 30^th, don't panic.  This is one message you’ll be happy to receive. 

On that date, the County is testing the Alert Monterey County system which is used to notify the public of important public safety information such as natural disasters, evacuations, wide-area power blackouts, urgent law enforcement operations, and missing persons or kidnapped children.

"Being able to connect with Monterey County residents in such an important way is valuable to our overall preparedness as a county,” said Monterey County Emergency Services Manager Sherrie Collins. "Getting information to those who need it in a timely manner can sometimes be an obstacle, but technology gives us newfound abilities and advancements. Emergency notifications via cell phones are a successful way to disseminate critical information to area residents during emergencies. Testing the system ensures that it will be ready when we need it."

Testing of the system will take place on Tuesday, September 30^th at 12:45 PM. Tuesday is America’s PrepareAThon!, a culmination of National Preparedness Month - a month-long national awareness campaign. The Monterey County Board of Supervisors formalized and recognized Monterey County’s efforts in a resolution on September 9^th, and encouraged all residents to take a step towards a “Ready Monterey County” by choosing an action that they could do to contribute to the efforts. Signing up to receive emergency notifications is a great start.

It is important to note that you will only receive a message if you have registered for Alert Monterey County prior to the 30^th. (If you haven’t already, you can register here)

For more information on Alert Monterey County, check out the FAQs . 

For more information about emergency preparedness in Monterey County, head to the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services webpage and follow them on Twitter (@MontereyCoOES).

What to expect

A short message identifying itself as a test of the Monterey County Emergency Notification System, delivered via the method that you designated upon sign up (call, text, email, or VOIP) on Tuesday, September 30^th.

National Preparedness Month Week 4 – Practice & Update

You've gone through the process this month of talking about what could happen and what you could do now to protect against it. You've made a plan for when it happens, and assembled the necessary supplies for your own or your family's needs. That's GREAT!

You feel pretty prepared, right?

Well, the truth is, you are, and you're doing better than the 90-93% of American households who haven't done the above…BUT unless your plan reflects current needs, your kit fills them, and everyone can remember exactly what to do, your efforts may be lacking when action is required.

The final step in staying prepared is to practice and update your emergency procedures, so when you have to make a phone call to your out-of-state contact, the number is correct (because they moved 6 months ago); or if you have to pick your child up from a school evacuation, you know that they changed the parent pick-up site to the lower baseball field because of construction over the last year; or when you go to turn on the flashlight (because the power is out) you don't find the batteries are all dead because they expired.

So make sure:

That everyone knows what they are responsible for (who/what/where/when)

• 
  
• Info is up to date and any changes are reflected and known about
• It still works for you. It not, make revisions.

Circle a date on your calendar twice a year- April 30th and September 30th , the Spring and Fall "PrepareAThon!" dates, are great places to start; clock changes are another– and pull the plan, kit, and family together for a quick check-up.

Possible Rain Wed/Thurs

 

Overview An upper level storm system will being to impact the region by Wednesday, bringing light rain and showers to the San Francisco Bay area through Thursday. Precipitation will begin across the North Bay on Wednesday and spread southward over the metro area Wednesday night through Thursday morning. Further south, rain showers are possible, yet rainfall amounts will generally remain light. The upper level system will also result in cooler daytime temperatures through the upcoming weekend.

CONFIDENCE

·  High: Confidence in precipitation impacting the San Francisco Bay area Wednesday through Thursday. Lower confidence in exact timing and rainfall amounts.

UPDATED INFORMATION

·  This is the first briefing for this event. 

VIDEO BRIEFING

·  http://youtu.be/apSeMVV1p8Q 

TIMING

·  Light rain may begin to impact the North Bay region as early as Wednesday morning. Chances for rain showers increaseWednesday evening and continue through Thursday morning.

·  Rain showers will then spread southward into the San Francisco Bay metro areas late Wednesday night through the Thursday morning rush hour commute.

·  Isolated rain showers possible further south across the Central Coast early Thursday morning.

LOCATIONS

·  North Bay Coastal Mountains:

o 1/4" to 1/2" possible with isolated amounts up to 3/4"

·  Inland North Bay:

o 1/4" up to 1/2"

·  San Francisco Bay Metro Area:

o 0.05" to 0.15"

·  Central Coast (including Santa Cruz, Monterey, & Salinas Valley):

o Few hundredths of an inch

o Isolated higher amounts in Santa Cruz Mountains

IMPACTS

*Hazards:

·  No watches/warnings/advisories in effect at this time. 

*Impact 1 (Rainfall) :

·  Roads will likely become slick. This will create hazardous driving conditions especially for Thursday morning's rush hour commute. 

·  Reduced visibility possible within heavier rain showers.

We will continue to provide updates if the forecast changes.

Monitor NWS Monterey on Facebook and Twitter for further updates.