Bay Area sees rain, wind — even snow
Year’s first storm causes flooding around region
A storm unloaded downpours of rain, fierce winds, a coating of snow and at least one report of thunder and lightning Thursday throughout the Bay Area, leaving roads flooded and testing some drivers’ patience and skill behind the wheel.
For at least a couple of days, though, the wet winter should subside.
“Mostly dry conditions are likely to return,” said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “Friday is looking to be dry for everybody.”
Weather officials issued a flood advisory for five counties in the Bay Area that expired midday Thursday after heavy rain battered the region. In the first 12 hours of the day, San Francisco measured about an inch of precipitation, Gass said.
Despite the warning and repeated cautions from weather officials, many drivers were still caught offguard as
streets flooded. The California Highway Patrol reported flooded roads in Redwood City, Dublin, Hayward, Santa Rosa, Castro Valley, Solano and Marin counties, Oakland and San Francisco.
“It’s been just a typical first big storm of the year,” said Officer Bert Diaz, a CHP spokesman.
Diaz said he did not have a tally of spinouts that authorities had responded to, or how many floods had been reported, but there were no events that resulted in significant injuries.
Victor Reyes, who commutes to San Francisco from Sacramento, said he counted about seven collisions on his drive Thursday morning. The trip that typically consumes a little more than an hour and a half of his day cost him nearly three hours, as cars were inert along Interstate 80 from Berkeley into the city, he said.
“Pretty much every time it rains, it’s bad,” said Reyes, 30, as he wiped down a window of the pawnshop where he works in the Mission District. “The road conditions are definitely more dangerous.”
And he would know — he said he lost control of his car three times during the Thursday commute.
“Today was not one of the good days,” he said.
The roads that flooded, Diaz said, included the usual locations, such as southbound Interstate 280 near Eastmoor Avenue, where the far right lanes filled with water and Caltrans officials had to clear the scene.
“These are smaller drains, so it just takes a little bit longer,” Diaz said. “When you get an inch or 2, we see some buildup.”
While many dealt with traversing puddles and eluding bursts of heavy rain in urban areas, a dusting of snow coated Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County and Mount Umunhum in the South Bay. Snow also was reported at high elevations in the North Bay mountains, with light accumulation occurring at points above 3,500 feet.
“It looks like they are reporting a couple of inches,” Gass said.
Weather officials received a report of thunder in the Santa Cruz Mountains on Thursday morning, and lightning strikes were observed offshore. The storm system’s cold front also delivered wind gusts stronger than 50 mph at high points.
More than 300 flights were delayed and dozens were canceled at San Francisco International Airport because of the storm.
“We’ve got it all,” National Weather Service officials wrote in a Twitter post about reports of rain, hail, thunderstorms and wind.
The rain was expected to linger through the evening Thursday before subsiding and giving way to drier weather on the weekend. Gass said the forecast calls for dry conditions through Sunday.
Temperatures are expected to be a bit higher by the end of the week, while daily lows will dip into the lower 40s on the coast and upper 30s inland.
Meteorologists were monitoring another possible storm that could arrive early next week, but Gass said it is too early to be confident of any predictions.