Tropical storm remnants headed for Calif.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Eugene are expected to push into California Tuesday and Wednesday. The moisture will bring a chance of rain to Southern California and is likely to drive up humidity levels across a large portion of the state, the National Weather Service said. 

“It’ll feel very sticky,” said Joe Sirard, a forecaster with the weather service’s Los Angeles bureau. “You’ll definitely feel humidity with the tropical moisture coming in. If it’s 80 degrees, it’ll feel 90 to 95.”

“We do get tropical storms and hurricane that develop over the eastern Pacific,” Sirard said. “It can happen as early as June. It’s not that common for California to see remnants of these storms. It does happen occasionally. Not necessarily every summer, but it does happen.”

The remnant moisture associated with the system is moving north and will reach Southern California as early as Tuesday, the weather service said. Cloud cover is expected to increase. There’s a chance for rain and a slight chance for thunderstorms in the southern part of the state, including across Los Angeles County and as far north as San Luis Obispo County and as far south as San Diego County. The inland desert areas and the southern Sierra Nevada could also see rain and maybe even some scattered thunderstorms.  

Peak moisture is expected in Southern California on Wednesday but the weather service’s LA office said chances for precipitation could continue into Thursday and Friday.

“As this is such a climatologically unusual event, the models probably don’t have the best grasp of it and the forecast remains low confidence accordingly,” the weather service’s LA office said. 

The San Francisco Bay Area is expected to see less significant impacts from the moisture than Southern California.

“At this moment, I would keep it generally south of the Bay Area,” said Ryan Walbrun, a forecaster with the weather service’s Bay Area office. “Right now the most likely dividing line is somewhere across Monterey County and the Central Coast.”

Walbrun said the Bay Area will see some high clouds, especially southern parts of the region, on Wednesday from the remnant moisture. 

“San Jose on Wednesday might see some of the high clouds,” he said. “That would be the signal that the remnant moisture is somewhat nearby.”

As the remnant moisture is pushing north, a trough of low-pressure will be dropping down from the Pacific Northwest into Northern California on Tuesday, leading to cooler weather and increased in fog. The trough, Walbrun explained, will counteract the remnant moisture, nudging it to the south and preventing it from fully moving into the Bay Area.

Amid the weather shift, afternoon highs across the Bay Area are forecast to be anywhere from 5 to 15 degrees cooler on Tuesday than they were on Monday. From Tuesday to Thursday, daytime highs are expected to be in the 70s to 80s in inland valleys and in the 60s on the coast. Walbrun said humidity levels could increase beginning Wednesday with the remnant moisture just to the south of the region.