Soggy streets, snowy peaks in forecast for coming days
With any luck, Bay Area peaks might get another layer of snow this weekend.
Back-to-back storms overnight Friday and again Saturday will bring chilly air and rain, even flurries, to the region as two fronts move in from the Gulf of Alaska, forecasters say. Snow levels could drop as low as 1,500 feet overnight Saturday, bringing a dusting to the Bay Area’s highest hills and as much as 4 feet of powder to the Lake Tahoe area.
And the soggy weather doesn’t end there. Forecasters say rain and snow are likely to continue on and off through the end of next week, extending what’s already been a relatively wet month and helping push California’s fickle water supplies into safe territory — at least for the time being.
“The systems sort of keep marching through,” said Jan Null, meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services. “This is actually very typical of this time of year. The atmosphere gets into a
pattern and it locks in for three to seven to 10 days sometimes.”
As it stands, San Francisco has seen about 13 inches of rain since Oct. 1, the start of the wet season. That’s about 89 percent of average, with as much as another inch of rain expected by the end of the weekend. The Northern Sierra eight-station precipitation index, meanwhile, which serves as a bellwether of state water supplies, measured 103 percent of average Friday. Snowpack in the Sierra was at 123 percent of average for this time of year.
The robust precipitation totals are good news for California water managers who have seen mostly below-normal figures for five of the past seven years. Memories of brown lawns, short showers and dirty cars are still fresh for residents forced into water conservation in many parts of the state.
“Heading into December we were behind,” said Mike Anderson, state climatologist at the California Department of Water Resources. “As we have gone through the winter, we’ve caught up. We’ll see how the rest of the winter holds up.”
In Bay Area cities, between 0.25 and 0.75 of an inch of rain was expected to fall by Saturday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The North Bay mountains, East Bay hills and Santa Cruz Mountains were forecast to see 1 to 1.5 inches.
After a brief respite Saturday, a blast of wet weather in the evening is expected to deliver another quarter inch of rain in urban areas and more at higher elevations.
Bay Area highs were forecast to be in the low to mid-50s through the weekend. Lows in San Francisco were expected be in the 40s, while hills and valleys outside the city could see nighttime temperatures in the low to mid-30s.
“Temperatures will be a bit below normal,” said Spencer Tangen, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
In Lake Tahoe and other parts of the Sierra Nevada, where ski resorts have enjoyed prime snow conditions recently, a winter storm warning was issued by the National Weather Service through 10 p.m. Sunday. Forecasters said Sunday’s ski commute could be difficult and advised travelers to avoid the passes if possible.
“It’s a challenge to get up here so people don’t come up, but when roads are open and clear, they do,” said Kevin Cooper, a longtime Lake Tahoe resident and ski expert. “It’s kind of feast or famine.”
Once skiers and snowboarders arrive in the high country, Cooper said, they can’t ask for much better. Blustery temperatures and the steady stream of storms have made for ideal conditions, he said.
While the cycle of storms may have slowed weekend visits, mountain areas are seeing a surge in midweek hotel bookings, resort managers say.
“It just correlates to people wanting to get up here when it’s fresh,” said Jon Slaughter, a spokesman for Sugar Bowl Resort.
Last week, even the Bay Area got a taste of snow, and residents flocked to Mount Diablo and other peaks for a rare dusting that painted the hillsides white.
Operators of California’s biggest reservoirs said Friday they still had plenty of room to take in water from the expected storms. Smaller facilities, however, such as the South Bay’s Anderson Reservoir, were making releases to accommodate the high inflow projected.
Beyond the weekend, the timing of the next round of wet weather remained uncertain. Most models showed a chance of more cold rain and snow late Monday and into Tuesday with another another larger but warmer system forecast for Wednesday or Thursday.
The late-week storm could register on the newly published scale of atmospheric rivers, said Anderson, with the Department of Water Resources. The rating system, published this week and yet to be widely adopted, seeks to characterize the narrow plumes of water vapor that account for much of California’s precipitation. At this point, the expected storm is rated a Category 1, the mildest category, Anderson said, but the front could grow.
“It could be anything from a run-of-the-mill storm to a very significant event,” he said.