Increasing clouds and scattered showers arrive today ahead of a powerful storm pushing onshore. As a result we'll be a few degrees cooler than yesterday, with highs in the mid-60s here on the valley floor, low 60s in the Kern River Valley and mid-50s in the south mountains. But that's still relatively warm, so there could be some thunderstorms with the rain moving through today. 

This Pineapple Express as it's called is a tropical feed of moisture that is like a fire hose pointed straight at Kern County, with rain increasing in intensity and bringing a good soaking to all of Kern County this afternoon into this evening. We'll continue to have rain most of the night, but then the rain ramps up tomorrow, likely causing flooding in the valley but also bringing the threat of flash flooding, rock and mudslides to the mountains. The hardest rain looks to arrive late tomorrow afternoon into the evening hours. 

The rain continues through Thursday with any moisture left that night turning to accumulating snow at pass level heading into Friday morning. Thankfully the weekend ahead is cool and cloudy, but looks dry, and then the sunny 70s are back for most of next week.