More rain and high winds coming for Bay Area, Tahoe to get more snow

A dry spell for storm-weary Bay Area residents will end Tuesday as a system coming from Alaska heads south toward the region, bringing with it rain, high winds, possible lightning strikes and a couple of feet of snow in Tahoe.

The storm will begin late Monday night over the North Bay and in the Santa Cruz Mountains, with precipitation expected for the San Jose area early Tuesday morning after sunrise, National Weather Service Meteorologist Roger Gass said.

Mountainous areas are expected to receive up to an inch of rain, while lower-lying regions could get up to three-quarters of an inch. Strong winds will accompany the wet weather, with gusts likely to range between 30 and 60 miles per hour. There’s also a 15 to 20 %chance of thunderstorms, Gass said.

Temperatures will remain cold throughout Monday — and the storm will bring with it slightly warmer weather, with overnight lows expected to be in the low 40s and highs in the 50s.

The worst of the system will pass over the region on Tuesday, but wet conditions will likely last until early Thursday. Major river flooding isn’t expected, NWS officials said, though some localized incidents on highways are a possibility. The combination of high winds and saturated soil from numerous past storms could down trees and spark some isolated power outages.

To the east in the Sierras, the storm will hit starting Tuesday morning and last until either Thursday or Friday, bringing up to two the three feet of snow in higher elevation areas. Up to 18 inches is expected in lower-lying regions, according to NWS’s Brittany Whitlam.

Altogether, the system comes as the Bay Area experiences one of its wettest winters in recent history, with reservoir levels at all-time highs and hills that are normally a dark-ish brown bursting with greenery.

“It’s been a busy winter for us,” said NWS’s Gass. “We’re also ready for a break.”

Bay Area weather expert Jan Null said despite the incoming system, which he described as relatively mild, there’s nothing major on the horizon for the region.

“There’s nothing in the first week of April that looks ominous,” he said. “Right now the future is bright. This is kind of what happens (in spring). The storms get fewer and weaker and farther apart.”