Much of U.S. shivers as Bay Area warms

In Florida, it’s so cold that frozen iguanas are falling out of trees. In the Northeast, a major storm closed schools and roads, and temperatures continue to drop to bitter lows. Meanwhile, it’s unseasonably warm in San Francisco.

Most of the Bay Area should expect temperatures in the low 60s through the weekend, with lows in the high 50s, said Anna Schneider, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey. Thursday, there was a high of 70 degrees in San Jose — breaking the record for the day of 68 degrees, which stood since 1911.

“It’s been warm for this time of year,” Schneider said.

Friday, there were scattered showers throughout the day, mainly in the North Bay, which got between 0.25 and 0.5 of an inch of rain. The weekend is expected to be dry throughout the Bay Area.

Weather in the rest of the country has had consequences for Bay Area travelers, though. Thursday, 103 flights to or from San Francisco International Airport were canceled. On Friday, at least 23 scheduled departures or arrivals had been canceled by afternoon, SFO spokesman Shawn Miyaki said. Not all of those cancellations were due to weather, Miyaki added, but many were.

The Bay Area can expect its own storm next week.

“This is a more organized and stronger storm than we’ve seen,” Schneider said. “The past few days have been a little weaker.”

The forecast calls for moderate to heavy rainfall, probably starting Monday afternoon and continuing throughout Tuesday, Schneider said. There could be 2 to 3 inches of rain on some of the highest peaks in the North Bay and Santa Cruz Mountains.

“At lower elevations, we’re probably looking at more like an inch,” she added.

Southerly winds are predicted to reach 20 to 30 mph along coastal ranges with gusts up to 50 mph.

“In other areas, it will be breezy and gusty, but below what we’d consider for a wind advisory,” Schneider said.

The storm could be good for resorts at high elevations in the Sierra, where snowpack this year has been anemic. A recent survey determined that it’s at 24 percent of average for this time of year.

“There’s definitely a possibility that elevations above 7,500 to 8,000 feet will get a couple of feet of snow,” said Zach Tolby, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno.

For resorts like Heavenly Mountain and Squaw Valley, where peaks are higher than 8,000 feet, that’s good news. For lower resorts, not so much. They can expect an inch or two of rain.

“It’s a warm, subtropical moisture system,” Tolby said.

Still, this storm might be better than nothing.

“We would like it to be 2,000 feet lower to get a good snowstorm,” Tolby said. “But after such a dry December, any good precipitation and snow will help the conditions out here.”