What to know about how Hurricane Jova will impact California

A hurricane off the coast of Baja California is not on the same track as Hurricane Hilary. Hurricane Jova will never reach land, but the system is already sending big waves to California and could push enough moisture into the Golden State to bring some thunderstorms and light showers on Saturday and Sunday — though the chances are extremely slim.

Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center, said there’s generally a 10% chance for rain across Central and Southern California on Saturday and Sunday, and a 10% to 20% chance over the Central and Southern Sierra Nevada Range. 

“With Hurricane Jova, the storm is pulling away from California and it’s going to be weakening over the next couple days,” Orrison said. “It looks like there’s going to be very little moisture getting into California.”

The nine-county San Francisco Bay Area isn’t expected to see rain, but there’s a slight chance of showers just south of the region in Monterey and San Benito counties. 

The bigger concern with Jova is high surf, and the National Weather Service issued advisories warning of elevated surf and potential impacts at beaches from Big Sur to Southern California. 

“Right now the chances for any rain is very minimal,” said Rich Thompson, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Los Angeles office, which monitors weather in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and LA counties. “There’s a non-zero chance for getting some rain, but we’re going to get nothing like we saw with Tropical Storm Hilary. The big issue with the hurricane is the swells we’re going to be getting in, like surf heights of 5 to 8 feet and with that some dangerous rip currents.” 

The weather service warned of high surf and dangerous rip currents along the Central and Southern California coast Friday and through the weekend due to south swell from Hurricane Jova. “Elevated surf and dangerous rip currents are expected for all beaches, but especially for south-facing beaches,” the weather service’s LA office said. Beach erosion and flooded beach parking lots and pathways are possible, especially at south-facing beaches.

The weather service’s Bay Area office also warned of “increased rip current risk and larger breaking waves” along south-facing and steeper sloped beaches along Monterey Bay and the Big Sur coast.

Some remnant moisture from Jova is expected to push into Central and Southern California Saturday and Sunday and high clouds could cover parts of the region. 

“Remnant moisture from Tropical Cyclone Jova will increase clouds and humidity over the weekend with possible showers and thunderstorms over the weekend,” said the weather service’s LA office Friday.

“Increasing moisture aloft will mean considerable high cloudiness this weekend, along with a slight chance for thunderstorms over the higher mountains, mainly Saturday afternoon,” the weather service’s San Diego office said in its forecast. 

Crystal Oudit, a forecaster with the weather service’s Monterey office, said confidence in the rain forecast for Monterey and San Benito counties was very low as of Friday morning. “I think there is a chance for some rain in the mountain areas, right now the chances are slim,” she said.