Wind, sun on tap after a healthy soaking from storm
Blue skies are expected today and continuing into holiday weekend
The storm that power-washed the Bay Area with torrential rain Friday and Saturday was an impressive reminder that winter is here. But as abruptly as it swept in it is roaring away, leaving the region with a pleasant — if slightly breezy — start to the week.
“For the early part of the week, we'll be influenced by an area of high pressure building across the region that will bring really nice weather — really docile weather compared to what we went through the last couple days,” said Brian Garcia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Bay Area. “Expect generally clear skies, with warm daytime highs and modest overnight lows.”
This high-pressure system is expected to continue into the holiday weekend. But first, there's the matter of a windy patch remaining today. There could be gusts as high as 23 mph, especially along the coast and on the waterfront in San Francisco.
“There might be a little breezy start to the morning especially along the Bay, and then those winds look like they'll spread through the area,” Garcia said.
The National Weather Service said some of the most widespread, heavy rain rolled into the region Friday night, especially up in the North Bay and Santa Cruz mountains. That precipitation fell from a low-pressure storm system that had been lingering off the coast for days, which finally made its way to California by Friday evening.
The North Bay, and in particular Marin County, got the worst of the soaking with as much as 3.6 inches of rain falling from Friday to Saturday evening.
“They got loaded up in there. It's pretty impressive, the 24-hour rainfall amounts,” Garcia said.
The South Bay got as much as 2.4 inches in Santa Cruz, and the East Bay got a little less with as much as 1.4 inches.
The weather service lifted its flood, wind and hail warnings for Santa Cruz County early Saturday, but motorists and residents are still advised to keep an eye out for possible road closures and flooding.
As this same storm system moves east, the National Weather Service has declared a Winter Weather Advisory in the northern Sierra Nevada, in effect between 4 p.m. Saturday and early Sunday morning.
Three to 8 inches of snow are expected to fall above 6,500 feet around Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area, including wind gusts forecast as high as 40 to 55 mph. Higher peaks and the Lassen Park region may see up to a foot of snow accumulation.
But those snowflakes won't be nearly enough to kick off this winter's ski and snowboarding season. Three ski resorts near Lake Tahoe — Sugar Bowl, Heavenly and Northstar — have already delayed opening day until at least December.
This latest storm was “kind of a nice entry into winter,” says Garcia. It's also a reminder that we're in an El Niño year, which some forecasters say could be especially fierce.
“The Climate Prediction Center outlooks issued on Thursday continue to show us with a higher probability of being above-normal for precipitation during the core of our winter,” Garcia says. “Even if we have a dryer winter all it takes is one big storm to create problems. One storm could bring impacts across the region, from power outages to flooding to even landslides.”