Storm Shield Forecast morning update 2/14/19

thankfully the feed of tropical moisture is aiming toward Kern County this morning, bringing a good soaking rain that should squash the dust. The heaviest rain starts on the west side around sunrise and continues through the valley until about 9 a.m. with a downpour over the mountains to follow. It will be hard to drive through this heavy rain, especially because it's paired with 50+ mile per hour wind gusts. And this is too much of a good thing, as all this rain will be falling on higher elevation snowpack, causing it to melt and all that water runs down into our mountain communities. A Flood Watch remains in effect as the foothills and mountains could see half an inch to an inch of rain or more! Here in the valley we're looking to pick up about a tenth to a quarter inch possibly.