From the NWS:

The National Weather Service in the San Francisco Bay Area has issued a * tornado warning for… Santa Clara County in northern California… This includes the city of Morgan Hill… Santa Cruz County in northern California… * Until 230 pm pst  * at 202 pm pst… National Weather Service doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado moving northeast at 35 mph. This storm may produce quarter size hail

UPDATE: The NWS has issued an urban and small stream flood advisory. Can track the storm on this Half Moon Bay weather station.

The National Weather Service forecasts high winds sufficient to cause property damage or power outages from 7am to 4pm on Monday.

Strongest winds are  expected near the coast… Particularly coastal areas south of San Francisco. ...High wind warning in effect from 7 am to 4 pm pst monday… The National Weather Service in San Francisco has issued a high wind warning…Which is in effect from 7 am to 4 pm pst monday.  This high wind warning covers coastal sections of San Mateo… Santa Cruz…And Monterey Counties. ... Winds: southeast winds of 20 to 40 mph are expected with gusts as high as 60 mph. ... * Impacts: winds this strong can lead to property damage. Downed trees and power lines will result in power outages.

A series of storms has been forecast for next week by the National Weather Service. The first storm will hit Sunday and bring one to three inches in higher elevations and up to an inch in "urban" areas. The second storm is expected to arrive Tuesday with another. The will be accompanied by strong winds.

Two redwood forest properties totaling 267 acres have been sold for $2.1 million by Redtree Properties to Sempervirens Fund, a non-profit land trust, based in Mountain View, reports the Mercury News.

The first parcel, at 107 acres, is located at Waterman Gap, seven miles north of Boulder Creek near the intersection of Highway 9 and Highway 236. First logged a century ago, the property sits adjacent to the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail, a popular 35-mile hiking route that links Castle Rock State Park to the Pacific Ocean.

Last year, Redtree obtained state permits to cut about 35 percent of the redwood and Douglas fir trees on the property larger than 18 inches in diameter.

"The trees are marked with blue x’s. They have the logging permits. They have the landing sites. It was ready to go,’’ said Reed Holderman, executive director of Sempervirens Fund. "There are some pretty sizable trees, second-growth redwoods there, about 100 years old."

Sempervirens will sell the land to the sate for the price that it paid to be added to the surrounding Castle Rock State Park when it is able to pay the $1.4 million.

The other property in the sale, at 160 acres, sold for $760,000 and is located in San Mateo County between Butano State Park and Pescadero Creek County Park in La Honda. Redtree had not proposed logging it. At least 30 acres contain old-growth redwoods suitable for marbeled murrelets, a type of endangered sea bird that nests in ancient trees nearby, Holderman said.

Sempervirens Fund, named for the Latin word for redwood, was founded in 1900 by San Jose photographer Andrew P. Hill and his colleagues. Its efforts saved the first trees at Big Basin and began California’s state park system.

Timber companies have been more eager to sell to conservation groups in the current eocnomic environment. Redtree still owns 7,000 acres of forestland in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The National Weather Service is forecasting large, long-period waves—up to 20 feet with a period of 18 seconds—from 10pm Tuesday to 4am Thursday.

These large powerful waves will produce large breaking waves and strong rip currents within the surf zone. Please use caution and keep an eye out for sneaker waves while visiting the california beaches during this time period. A high surf advisory means that high surf will affect beaches in the advisory area…Producing rip currents and localized beach erosion.

One southbound lane of the Great Highway south of Sloat Blvd has been closed due to erosion of the bluffs by winter waves, reports the Chronicle:

In 1994, storms took out 30 to 40 feet of the bluff. Then in 1999, after a particularly nasty El Niño winter, engineers opted to build a barrier out of sand dredged from the shipping channel outside the Golden Gate. About 300,000 cubic yards of sand have been dumped offshore every summer since. The "sacrificial barriers give the ocean something to chew on rather than the bluff," Filice said. [...]

City officials are working with the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service to come up with a long-range plan to deal with the erosion.

A earthquake 6 miles northeast of Milpitas shook the Coastisde at 10:09am today. We’ve felt several light aftershocks here Montara.