Santa Barbara County High-Tech Rain Monitoring Helps to Protect South County
Santa Barbara County High-Tech Rain Monitoring Helps to Protect South County
New Rain Gauges Will Enhance Burn-Area Monitoring and Advance Warnings
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) – In the aftermath of the Thomas Fire and 1/9 Debris Flow, the Santa Barbara County Flood Control District installed six additional real-time rain gauges to provide enhanced rainfall monitoring for the impacted areas.
In cooperation with the National Parks Service, three new high-tech gauges were installed at weather monitoring stations on the Channel Islands, located at Anacapa, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands. These gauges electronically dispatch storm information to the National Weather Service and are vital in giving advance warning of the direction and intensity of storms approaching south Santa Barbara County.
In order to improve the NWS’s ability to predict the location and intensity of local rainfalls, three additional gauges have been installed in the watersheds above Montecito (see next page for map). With such a large geographic area at risk from future storms, the pin-pointing of rainfall patterns will provide valuable feedback to the NWS as they work to make their advance predictions more accurate.
“These rain gauges will improve the ability of the National Weather Service to have more accurate modelling and therefore better predictions,” says Rob Lewin, Director of the County’s Office of Emergency Management.
There are now 95 gauges countywide that transmit data to the NWS in real-time. The system enhancements are a collaborative effort between the County’s Flood Control District, the NWS, the National Parks Service and the California Geological Survey.
Information from the Santa Barbara County rain gauge network is available at: https://rain.cosbpw.net/home.php
Stay Connected:
It is critical that people in Santa Barbara County register to receive emergency alerts. Sign up for Aware and Prepare emergency alerts at www.ReadySBC.org. If we can’t reach you, we can’t alert you.
For updates through social media, follow @countyofsb on Twitter and Facebook. For general information, call 2-1-1 from 805 area code or 800-400-1572 outside of 805, or text your zip code to 898-211.
Permanece Conectado:
Es muy importante que las personas en el Condado de Santa Bárbara se registren para recibir alertas de emergencias. Inscríbete en alertas de emergencia Informados y Preparados (Aware and Prepare) en www.ReadySBC.org/es. Si no podemos localizarte, no podemos alertarte.
Para actualizaciones por las redes sociales, sigue @csbenespanol en Twitter, @countyofsb en Facebook. Para información en general, llama al 2-1-1 desde el código de área 805, o al 800-400-1572 para fuera del 805, o manda por texto tu código postal al 898-211