Showers expected this weekend
Another atmospheric river could arrive in the Bay Area next week
Kicking off a soggy start to November, more rain is headed to the Bay Area this weekend and another atmospheric river, weaker than the Oct. 24 storm that dumped record-breaking rainfall totals on the region, is expected to arrive early next week.
A series of weaker storms brought light rain to the Bay this week, starting on Monday.
As of Thursday at 10:00 a.m., 24-hour precipitation totals include: 0.84 inches of rain at Middle Peak at Mount Tamalpais, 0.28 inches in Santa Rosa, 0.26 inches at Ben Lomond, 0.20 inches at Mount Diablo, 0.16 inches in Kentfield, 0.15 inches at the Oakland international airport, 0.14 inches in downtown San Francisco, and 0.07 inches in San Jose and 0.08 inches in Fremont.
There will be lingering chances of rain on Thursday in the North Bay from the last weather system but the next decent shot at rain will be on Saturday night, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Eleanor Dhuyzetter. Another weather system is traveling from the Gulf of Alaska and picking up moisture that can be traced to just north of Hawaii.
The Bay Area could see anywhere from traces of rain to 0.15 inches in the higher elevations in the North Bay, including the coastal mountains, Dhuyzetter said.
An atmospheric river is expected to arrive late Sunday, bringing rain on Monday and Tuesday before likely dropping on Tuesday afternoon, according to the weather service.
It won’t come close to the strength of the atmospheric river from last month, which was the strongest storm in recent years and led to the wettest October day on record for San Francisco. The Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at UC San Diego has classified the storm as a 1 on a scale of1to5.
This atmospheric river will be sourced from the Gulf of Alaska and the low pressure system will come in from the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia before moving inland over Oregon and Washington on Monday. The Pacific Northwest is expected to bear the brunt of the rainfall and a “run-of-themill cold front” will bring rainfall to most of the Bay Area, according to NWS meteorologist Roger Gass.
“It’s not going to skip us and go down to Southern California. It will fizzle out and weaken as it drops southward down the coast,” Gass said. “We’re going to see the trailing effects in the form of a cold front but we’re not going to see it produce a significant amount of rainfall.”
Higher elevations in the North Bay and Santa Cruz mountains could see one to 1.5 inches of rain while the San Jose area and Santa Clara Valley could receive 0.25 to 0.50 inches. Downtown San Francisco and the Bay shoreline could get upwards of 0.50 an inch of while the East Bay valleys could see 0.25 to 0.50 an inch of rain.
Temperatures will remain consistent and slightly cool, ranging in the mid to high 60s, before cooling down on Friday in areas of the North Bay, according to the weather service. It’ll get down to the low 60s in some parts of the Bay Area on Sunday and Monday will see temperatures in the mid to low 60s, with a high of 60 degrees in San Francisco, a high of mid 60s in San Jose and a high of high 50s in Santa Rosa.
Winds are expected to pick up on Saturday afternoon to coincide with the next storm, with gusts reaching anywhere from 10 to 15 mph and 20 mph in some higher terrains.
The precipitation will spell good news for the Bay Area, which is still facing drought conditions after two dry winters in a row.
“The additional rain definitely helps,” Dhuyzetter said. “The rain’s definitely a good thing especially when it’s not with these more intense systems like what we saw last time. It will be beneficial and there will be less rain totals, but healthier rain where vegetation can really soak it all up.”
To make up for the intensity of the current drought, Dhuyzetter said that “any rain definitely helps” but the Bay will have to “get a lot more systems or see a lot more rainfall.”