typhoon Melor weather map
© The Weather Channeltyphoon Melor
The remains of super typhoon Melor, which is barreling across the Pacific at high speed today, threaten to bring flooding to some areas of California's Central Valley and mud slides in recently fire-ravaged areas, the National Weather Service reports.

Up to 6 inches of rain could fall starting Tuesday in the foothills and mountains east of the Sacramento Valley in the season's first major storm for Northern California, meteorologist Felix Garcia of the National Weather Service said.

The valley could see up to 2 inches of rain during the entirety of the storm, he said.

The snow level will stay above 7,000 feet or 8,000 feet, meaning virtually all the precipitation will be in the form of rain, Garcia said.

Areas where fires occurred may suffer more.

For those areas, rainfall after a fire will transform the soil to "almost like plastic," Garcia said. "When rain falls, it doesn't get absorbed."

So it can begin to slide.

"We're meeting with local emergency management agencies, doing phone meetings, every eight hours" to coordinate forecasting and preparedness, Garcia.

Growing winds will accompany the heavy rain, with gusts of up to 40 mph on Tuesday at lower elevations and higher in the mountains.

Typhoon Melor clobbered the Philippines and Japan in the western Pacific before its remnants were swept into the jet stream now West Coast bound.

"The typhoon intensified so that the remnants were caught up with the jet stream and carried the moisture," Garcia said.

He said the fast-moving storm front should reach the West Coast by Monday afternoon, then slow somewhat, and begin dumping its wet cargo in the Central Valley in earnest starting Tuesday morning. That will push rivers and creeks higher and cause local flooding in areas unable to absorb the heavy rainfall.

The front will announce its arrival Monday with a 10-degree temperature drop, bringing highs to about 69 or 70 degrees.

Usually, Garcia said, fall temperatures are in the low 80s.