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After a brief respite, Valley facing another series of storms

The Fresno Bee
A small roadway is covered over with water from a flooded creek in Coarsegold following heavy rain on Feb. 7, 2017. A new series of storms is headed toward the Valley later this week, and could trigger more flooding and mudslides, the National Weather Service said.
A small roadway is covered over with water from a flooded creek in Coarsegold following heavy rain on Feb. 7, 2017. A new series of storms is headed toward the Valley later this week, and could trigger more flooding and mudslides, the National Weather Service said. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com

The Valley’s respite from rain is about to end.

A new series of Pacific storms is expected to arrive starting late Thursday – and the rain will continue at least through the President’s Day weekend, the National Weather Service in Hanford said.

The first storm on Thursday is expected to bring rain to the Valley and snow to the Sierra Nevada above 7,000 to 8,000 feet. A second, wetter storm will arrive on Friday and could cause rock and mudslides in the foothills and more rising water in area rivers and streams, the weather service said.

A third storm is expected to arrive sometime Monday. Wet weather could continue into the middle of next week, the weather service said.

The storms are likely to push Fresno’s rainfall total beyond the seasonal average for a full rain year. As of Tuesday morning, Fresno had recorded 11.11 inches since Oct. 1. Normal rainfall for a full season is 11.5 inches.

Before the rain arrives, dense fog is in the offing for Wednesday morning, with visibility of a quarter-mile or less likely in widespread areas of the Valley, the weather service said.

This story was originally published February 14, 2017 at 3:30 PM with the headline "After a brief respite, Valley facing another series of storms."

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