For Bay Area, a day to dry out before another storm starts to arrive
Bay Area residents will receive a respite Wednesday from a welcome deluge of rain, but it won’t be a long one, according to the National Weather Service.
“We’re gonna have a nice break for a day, and then we’re probably going to see conditions that are a bit of a hit-and-miss on Thursday and Friday,” NWS meteorologist Brian Garcia said. “Come Saturday, we’re gonna see that cold front slide on down, and it could get heavy again.”
An atmospheric river storm brought hard rains and even harder winds on Tuesday, the second straight day that a significant amount fell. Some of the most intense was in Oakland, where the Oakland Museum recorded a record 2.12 inches from midnight Tuesday until about 7:30 p.m., according to the weather service. That broke the previous Dec. 27 mark of 1.86 inches, set in 2004, the weather service said.
The weather service’s 24-hour rainfall totals as of 7 a.m. Wednesday showed the storm’s heaviest activity was in the mountains. In Watsonville, 2.5 inches of rain fell, while 1.5 inches fell in Ben Lomond, 1.38 inches fell in Mt. Umunhum and 1.35 inches fell in Half Moon Bay. Overall, Santa Cruz received 4.18 inches of rain over a 48-hour period and Ben Lomond 3.67 inches.
Elsewhere Wednesday, Fremont and Milpitas received three-quarters of an inch; San Jose, Danville, Castro Valley and Hayward each received at least a half-inch; and Concord and San Francisco had a quarter-inch, according to the weather service.
Winds blew gusts up to 45 mph in the upper elevations after midnight Wednesday but had calmed by sunrise. The weather service said that winds blew about 10-20 mph throughout the region.
“If there’s anything that you need to do to clean up from the previous storm, (Wednesday) is the day to do it,” Garcia said. “It won’t be long until there’s more.”
The conditions created 20-to-25-foot waves off the coast and brought a high surf advisory that was set to expire at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The entire central coastline was affected, according to the weather service.
The rain cleaned the air around the region enough that a Spare the Air alert that ran for five days — through Christmaws — was allowed to expire. A flood advisory for the North Bay, downtown San Francisco and the Santa Cruz mountains also expired.
Garcia said the rain Saturday will be accompanied by a drop in temperatures and that by Monday, most of the region will dip into the 30s overnight. The coldest spots will be in the North Bay, South Bay and East Bay valleys. The cold snap is expected to last about 48 hours, he said.