‘Pineapple Express’ expected to drench Bay Area this week.
‘Pineapple Express’ storm is season’s final Hawaiian punch
The first day of spring won’t make up for a bone-dry winter, but the arrival of a “Pineapple Express” storm Tuesday offers some hope that the Bay Area will eventually close the gap in its average annual rainfall.
While mountain resorts last week touted the “March miracle” that pounded the Sierra with fresh snow, San Francisco and surrounding cities mostly saw sporadic showers that failed to live up to the hype.
“We’ve had a really good March in terms of snowfall,” said Chris Johnston, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno. “Since March 1, it’s been storm after storm after storm.”
That was expected to continue on Tuesday. Forecasters predicted an incoming system that will dump between a half-inch and 1.5 inches of rain from Tuesday to Thursday in San Francisco.
Dubbed a “Pineapple Express” because of its origins over Hawaii, the storm will hit hardest in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which should see 2 to 4 inches of rain; and further south, Big Sur can expect between 3 and 6 inches, forecasters said. Lighter rain is predicted in the North Bay, where 1 to 3 inches are expected.
April should bring a few more showers to the area,
but this week could be the last big deluge of the season, as models predict the climate will dry out in the coming months, said Steve Anderson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey.
The highest one-day rainfall this winter stands at .83 inches on March 1, which could be surpassed on Thursday, Anderson said.
Overall, though, rainfall totals in the region have fallen behind average for the water season, which starts on Oct. 1. San Francisco is currently at 60 percent of normal levels, Anderson said, and he doesn’t expect the difference to be closed this week.
Similarly, the Tahoe Basin sits at 60 percent of normal precipitation levels for the season.
There are currently no flooding or mudslide concerns in the burn areas from the October wildfires in the North Bay.
Temperatures are expected to stay mild over the next week, with daytime highs hovering in the mid-60s and dipping into the 40s and 50s overnight. The warmer climate should make for less snow and more rain, Johnston said.
“The biggest thing to take away is that this is a warmer storm, especially in the lower elevations,” he added.
At elevations above 7,500 feet, forecasters expect between 2 and 4 feet of snow between Mammoth Mountain and Kirkwood. Further north at Squaw Valley, 1 to 2 feet are expected.