Wet weekend in forecast for Bay Area

The Bay Area is in store for a wet weekend thanks to two storms sweeping into the region, forecasters said.

On Friday, rainfall is expected to total less than a quarter of an inch, but a second, heavier storm will arrive Sunday to bring the real deluge, said Spencer Tangen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“The whole Bay Area should see a little bit of rain on Friday evening,” he said, adding that the first storm will be “quite a bit weaker than the one on Sunday.”

Though rainfall Friday is expected to be light, it could douse the roadways just in time for the evening commute, Tangen warned. The rain will mostly taper off by Saturday, he said, but there is a slight chance that some of those showers could linger into Saturday, mostly in the North Bay.

Cooler temperatures are expected Friday with highs in the low 60s and upper 50s along the coast. Overnight lows Friday and Saturday likely will be in the upper 40s.

The second storm will begin Sunday afternoon with the heaviest showers expected that evening, Tangen said. The storm will bring close to an inch of rain to the Bay Area, and some roadways could be flooded.

“We could have some breezy winds from the south on Sunday with that storm,” Tangen said. “But at this time it doesn’t look too strong.”

Any rain is welcome throughout the state after years of prolonged dry spells, but forecasters say the Bay Area is in a good place for the amount of rainfall so far in the water year, which started Oct. 1.

“It’s hard to predict exactly what is going to happen in January and February, but in terms of December, especially if you compare to the last six years or so, this is a nice start,” said Ryan Walbrun, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Rainfall for most of the Bay Area is between 80 and 100 percent of normal, Walbrun said.

San Francisco is 73 percent of what is normal for this time of year and Santa Rosa is at 80 percent of average.

“We just want to keep it going,” Walbrun said.

By the end of this weekend’s storms, he added, the region’s water level should be close to normal for December.