Maya: Good morning, and welcome to your Mahrin Morning Briefing for Thursday, October first, twenty twenty-six. I'm Maya.
Devon: And I'm Devon. It's the first day of October, and Mahrin is starting the month warm and dry, though there is a coastal flood advisory to tell you about. Let's get into it.
Maya: Weather first. Today begins with some morning fog that burns off, and we are headed for a high of eighty-one, with lows tonight in the upper forties. Friday looks similar with a high of eighty-two, then Saturday turns genuinely hot, highs climbing to eighty-nine, and the National Weather Service says some inland spots in the Mahrin Coastal Range could touch the lower nineties.
Devon: Sunday stays warm at eighty-four, then next week eases back down, with highs mostly in the upper seventies to low eighties through Wednesday, and overnight lows in the mid fifties. Rain chances are slim to nothing all week, just a slight chance around twenty percent tonight and again Friday. Basically a dry, warm stretch.
Maya: One caution with that heat. We are now in Marin's peak fall fire-weather months, the Diablo wind season, the pattern Cal Fire credits with driving twelve of California's twenty most destructive wildfires. So stay alert if any fire weather watches pop up over the weekend.
Devon: Now the tides. Our seven-day NOAA outlook shows the bay side topping out today at six point two two feet just before three P M, and the ocean side at six point one eight feet a little after two P M. Both ease down through the week into the mid fives. On the astronomical predictions alone, nothing is flagged above normal, so tides are within the normal range.
Maya: But here is the important part. The National Weather Service has a coastal flood advisory in effect for bayshore locations through five P M today. They are predicting high tide about one point one feet above normal at the San Francisco gauge around two fifty-eight this afternoon, because a surge of up to zero point seven feet is riding on top of the astronomical tide. That means low-lying areas near shorelines and tidal waterways, think Santa Venetia and the San Pablo Bay shoreline, could see up to one point two feet of water above ground level. Expect some flooded lots, coastal trails under water, maybe isolated road closures, but nothing widespread. If you have to drive near the shore this afternoon, allow extra time and never drive through water of unknown depth.
Devon: And this is where El Nino comes in. The Climate Prediction Center's latest discussion says El Nino is still strengthening, with greater than ninety percent odds of a very strong event this fall and winter, and a seventy-five percent chance it becomes a historically strong event between October and December, the strongest since nineteen fifty. That extra heat in the eastern Pacific tends to lift sea levels along our coast, which is part of why the water is running above normal even before any storms arrive. So consider this afternoon's advisory a preview of the kind of winter the county has been preparing for.
Maya: On to the news. The Mill Valley Film Festival opens today. The forty-ninth edition runs October first through the eleventh, bringing more than two hundred filmmakers from over fifty countries to venues across Mahrin, the Sequoia Cinema in Mill Valley, the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, and the Lark Theater in Larkspur, plus screenings over in Berkeley. It's one of the big stops on the autumn awards-season circuit, so expect crowds and extra traffic around Mill Valley over the next eleven days.
Devon: Second story. The Southern Marin Fire Protection District has named its new fire chief. Heather Marques takes the job effective October twelfth. She comes from the Alameda County Fire Department, where she was division chief of medical services overseeing emergency medical services for a department that answers more than forty-eight thousand calls a year. The board cited her operational experience and collaborative leadership style.
Maya: And third, good news for North Bay commuters. State Senator Mike McGuire has secured a one million dollar state investment to keep the Redwood Bikeshare program rolling for three more years. The system has three hundred e-bikes in communities along the SMART corridor, including San Rafael, Novato, and Larkspur, and it has logged more than twenty-eight thousand trips since launching two years ago, with about sixty percent starting or ending at a SMART station. The funding also expands bikeshare service to every SMART station in the North Bay.
Devon: That's your briefing for Thursday. Hot Saturday ahead, high tide running above normal this afternoon with that coastal flood advisory through five P M, and the film festival rolling into town.
Maya: Have a great day in Mahrin, and we will talk to you tomorrow.
Devon: See you tomorrow.