Warmer weather is on Bay Area horizon

Temps to climb throughout the week, with light rain possible Thursday and Friday

The near-freezing lows much of the Bay Area saw leading into Monday will give way to warmer temperatures as the week goes on, forecasters said, but bits of rainfall that dotted the region Sunday may return by the week's end.

After a chilly Monday, which saw temperatures in the mid 50s across the Bay Area, frigid lows were predicted in the South Bay. San Jose's expected low was 29 degrees overnight Monday into today, with Walnut Creek at 33, Oakland at 36 and San Francisco at 40, prompting a frost advisory from the National Weather Service for most non-coastal areas.

The low temperatures could cause hazardous outdoor conditions for unsheltered populations, pets and plants, the agency warned. Frost advisories could carry over to tonight, NWS meteorologist Sean Miller said, with the agency set to make that assessment sometime during the day. A Monday afternoon forecast showed projected lows overnight today into Wednesday reaching 32 degrees in Walnut Creek, 35 degrees in San Jose, 38 degrees in Oakland and 40 degrees in San Francisco.

“In that range it's cold enough for frost formation,” Miller said.

Miller said the pattern of slight warming should continue throughout the week. Wednesday's lows were expected to remain near the top end of the 30s in most parts of the Bay Area before escaping to the 40s by Thursday.

“It's gradually going to warm up,” Miller said. “Each night going forward should be less cold than the night before.”

But while temperatures rise, more rain could follow. The weather service listed a slight chance of rainfall on Thursday evening and Friday morning. Miller said two weather systems were en route to the Bay Area — one Thursday and another Saturday — but the intensity shouldn't come close to mirroring the series of atmospheric river storms the region experienced earlier in the month.

“A few chances of rain (are coming) but nothing at all like we experienced. … Nothing of the order of any of the systems we saw before,” he said, adding that San Jose could see no more

than one-tenth of an inch. On the Peninsula and in the East Bay, rain could build up to about a quarter of an inch.

Scattered showers passed through some Bay Area cities Sunday afternoon and evening. Twenty-four hour rain totals from the NWS at 7 a.m. Monday showed slightly more than half of

an inch of rain had fallen at Mt. Diablo in Contra Costa County, with .04 inches in Milpitas, and .02 at San Francisco International Airport and Fremont. Oakland, downtown San Francisco and San Jose did not record any significant rainfall.

San Jose dropped below 40 degrees Monday morning

with temperatures at 39 degrees just before sunrise. Wind gusts up to 14 miles per hour provided the South Bay with wind chill temperatures in the lower to mid

30s.

Temperatures were similar in Walnut Creek and across Contra Costa County, with lows at 39 degrees coming around 6 a.m. Oakland

was slightly warmer Monday morning, reaching its low at 41 degrees, and downtown San Francisco was as cold as 44 degrees, according to the NWS.