Finally — `a chance for things to dry out'
Clear skies ahead: After 10 rainy days in a row, including another atmospheric river storm, relief is forecast for the rest of this week
The latest atmospheric river storm blitzed through the Bay Area on Tuesday, bringing ferocious winds, lots of power outages, scores of downed trees, more rain and sloppy road conditions.
But something unusual is about to arrive in the soaked region: clear skies.
Today and Thursday will be dry and warmer, forecasters said Tuesday, with no rain and temperatures in the high 50s to mid-60s around the bay, followed by chances of a few sprinkles Saturday and Sunday.
The respite is desperately needed. It has rained every day in the Bay Area for the past 10 days — since March 4 — and in 15 of the past 20 days back to Feb. 23.
“It's a chance for things to dry out and for people to get back
to normal,” said Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services in Half Moon Bay. “That's been rare this year.”
Tuesday's storm was the 11th atmospheric river since Christmas, the latest in a long line of storms that have ended drought conditions across the Bay Area and much of Northern California
and brought record snow levels to the Sierra Nevada.
The storm Tuesday, a plume of moisture from Hawaii that peaked in the early morning hours just as many residents were starting to awaken, ended up delivering less rain than expected. Big Sur saw 5 inches, and the Santa Cruz Mountains had 3 inches in the 24 hours ending at 3 p.m. Tuesday. But at lower elevations, most Bay Area cities received 1 inch or less, with Mill Valley receiving 1.34 inches, San Francisco recording 0.87, Oakland 0.82, Concord 0.51, Redwood City 0.45 and San Jose 0.31.
“It was a strong system. But it moved through faster than anticipated,” said Sean Miller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey. “The faster speed really worked in our favor. We didn't end up with super-high rain totals.”
The storm did deliver a haymaker of very strong winds that battered the Bay Area all day.
The fastest wind gusts hit 97 mph around lunchtime at the top of Loma Prieta, a 3,790-foot peak on the border of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County had gusts of 83 mph, while Los Gatos hit 88, Oakland 59, the Golden Gate Bridge 55 and San Jose 46.
“The wind has really stood out,” said Miller. “It's been windy all over.”
By 2 p.m., San Francisco International Airport had gusts of up to 77 mph, which made traveling miserable. As of 4:30 p.m., there had been 401 flights delayed and 70 canceled flights, according to Flight Aware, an air traffic monitoring service. The airport normally has about 1,000 flights a day.
“It's not just the speed of the winds but the direction of the winds,” said SFO spokesman Doug Yakel. “We're taking off and landing in an opposite direction than we normally do. That's less efficient, and that's a factor in the delays.”
While other Bay Area airports didn't experience similar delays, the winds also caused major power outages, knocking trees into power lines.
By Tuesday afternoon, there were 360,000 customers without power in PG&E's service area across Northern California, and 312,000 were in the Bay Area.
Santa Clara County had the most outages, with 123,348 homes and businesses without power. Contra Costa County had 76,881, San Mateo 66,842 and Alameda 32,723. To the south, Santa Cruz County had 4,807, Monterey had 19,868 and San Benito had 39 outages.
Dozens of roads were closed off and on throughout the day as trees fell into streets and highways.
A big rig blew over on the Richmond San Rafael Bridge, closing the eastbound lanes. On Interstate 280, downed trees closed southbound lanes near San Bruno. A eucalyptus collapsed on Highway 92, blocking the road for several hours between Half Moon Bay and Skyline Boulevard. Nearby, Highway 84 from Pescadero Road to Old La Honda Road was closed due to downed trees and power lines. In the South Bay, Highway 9 south of Saratoga was closed due to downed trees and power lines.
The storm continued to fill reservoirs across the state. Reservoir operators released water from many of the largest, such as Oroville in Butte County, Folsom northeast of Sacramento and Millerton near Fresno, to free up space to catch the incoming rain and melting snow later this spring as a way to reduce the risk of flooding to homes and businesses downstream.
Rainfall totals for many Northern California cities are well above historical averages and in many cases already have surpassed the annual averages after a few months of winter.
Sacramento's seasonal rainfall total Tuesday was 154% of its historical average since Oct. 1, while Oakland was at 178%, San Francisco 149% and San Jose, where the National Weather Service gauge has experienced some technical problems, is currently listed at 115%.
Along the Monterey-Santa Cruz county border, crews made progress closing a 365-foot gap in the earthen levees along the Pajaro River that burst Saturday, flooding the community of Pajaro. More than 300 people remained at the Red Cross shelter at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, where they were being given food, clothes and other assistance.
“They have a safe place to stay as long as they need it,” said Red Cross spokesman Martin Gagliano. “It is hard to experience that kind of emergency. We are there for them.”