Tonight’s Full Wolf Moon set this morning at 6:34 AM and rises over San Luis Obispo this evening at 5:13 PM PST.
Other names for it are Old Moon, Moon After Yule, and Ice Moon.
The forecast is for a 10 percent chance of rain after 4pm and mostly cloudyskies today, so it’s not likely that we will be able to see it tonight.
The first storm will approach our area today with increasing southerly winds and rain. Periods of heavy rain will develop tonight into Martin Luther King Jr. Day along with moderate gale to fresh gale force (32-46 mph) southerly winds.
Rain amounts with this storm look to generally range from about 2 to 3 inches in the low elevation regions to 3 to 6 inches in the higher terrain and mountains with snow levels from 4,000 to 5,500 feet north to south today coming down to 3,500 to 5,000 feet Monday.
After a very brief break Monday night into Tuesday morning, another wet weather system will cross the state Tuesday afternoon with a return of rain and strong to moderate gale force (25- to 38-mph) southerly winds. The rain will turn to showers
by Tuesday night. Another storm, the strongest of the series, will cross the Central Coast Wednesday afternoon into Thursday with heavy rain and fresh gale to strong force (39- to 54- mph) southerly winds. This storm could bring flood and mudslide concerns to our area.
Total rainfall amounts from these systems could add 5 to 10 inches in the lower elevations and 12 to 18 inches in the higher terrain and mountains by Friday. Thunderstorm chances will increase later in the week as a cold air mass in the upper atmosphere filters across the region.
Saturday should be mostly dry, then another storm is forecast to arrive on Sunday with increasing southerly winds and periods of heavy rain.
Here at SLOweather, last night’s Blue Moon rose over the East Cuesta Ridge mountains 23 minutes after the official, horizon-based time of 5:11PM.
…and here’s the first sunrise of 2010…
