Update 7:29 p.m. from KSBY Chief Meteorologist Dave Hovde
If you scroll down you'll see the history of our coverage from earlier today.
The severe storms have ended but not before doing significant damage in the Grover Beach area. At this point it is not clear if the damage was from straight-line winds or a tornado. The National Weather Service will be on the Central Coast Thursday morning to determine how the damage was caused.
Here at the top of the article, I'll cover the upcoming forecast and you can find out more about what happened earlier by scrolling further down.
The storms Wednesday were caused by a surface trough rotating thru a larger upper-level trough still over the Central Coast and California. The line of storms included small hail, strong winds, and thunderstorms. The line also moved very rapidly, at 50-60mph. The brief but strong line was already into Ventura county by 7pm.
Even though the main band is done, there is still upper-level instability in the area and on-and-off showers, and small downpours are possible thru Thursday but the upcoming activity will be more brief and much less powerful. The trend will be for more "off" than "on" activity.
By Friday a ridge builds over The West and temps slowly warm back into the 60s and even mid-60s early next week.
——— Update 6:55 p.m. ———
The line of severe storms has pushed south out of Santa Barbara County heading into Ventura County. They do have a severe thunderstorm Warning in place for 60 mph winds as well as pea-sized hail.
Now that the storm has cleared out Central Coast Communities a few scattered showers will move through overnight but will bring nothing as severe as this afternoon's storm.
——— Severe storm update 5:50 p.m. ———
Another SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING has been issued until 6:45p.m.
Santa Barbara, Isla Vista and Goleta are all expected to see this severe storm in the next few minutes. 60 mph wind gusts and penny-sized hail. Take shelter now widespread damage has already been reported.
———Damage update 5:30 p.m ———
If you have any photos of damage please post them using the hashtag #beonksby and email them to news@ksby.com
Carsten Frauenheim sent in this photo from Grover Beach^
Adam Laurent sent in this photo also from Grover Beach^
Widespread power outages have been reported due to the storm as well. Here is the latest on the outages.
——— 4:50 p.m. Update——-
A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for western Santa Barbara County and southern San Luis Obispo County until 5:45pm. 60mph winds and penny-sized hail is expected in this storm. This includes Santa Maria, Lompoc, Nipomo, Orcutt, and Vandenberg.
Additionally, a flood advisory has been issued for all of Santa Barbara County through 10 p.m. tonight. The strong line of storms is dropping 0.3" to 0.5" inches of rain widespread but could amount to 1 to 2" more inches of rain.
——— Original Article ———
The National Weather Service briefly issued a Tornado Warning for parts of coastal San Luis Obispo County on Wednesday afternoon. It expired at 3:50 p.m.
At 3:36 p.m., the National Weather Service reported that severe thunderstorms capable of producing a tornado were located along a line extending from Morro Bay to 14 miles southwest of San Luis Obispo, moving east at 55 mph.
Locations impacted were Morro Bay, Diablo Canyon, Los Osos, and Cayucos.
Take shelter now if you are within the area of the warning. Stay away from windows This is part of a much larger line of storms that will march across the region quickly. We expect more warnings to be issued as this pushes east.
