Rain set to return this week
After one of the driest Decembers on record, area will get wet to start the year
After one of the driest Decembers on record in the Bay Area, the first week of the new year will bring the return of wet weather, according to the National Weather Service.
The week is starting off dry, with another Spare the Air Alert in effect through Tuesday, but rain is in the forecast beginning Wednesday and could stretch to the weekend. Precipitation levels are expected to be modest, however.
On Wednesday, rain could show up in the morning but is most likely to hit in the afternoon and evening, with a slight chance of thunderstorms in the South Bay and East Bay. There is a chance that the rain will continue Thursday, Friday and Saturday, according to a forecast from the National Weather Service. Temperatures will range from lows in the 40s to highs in the low 60s.
The National Weather Service is predicting the rainfall will be light to moderate in intensity. The area around Concord is predicted to have about 0.40 inches of rainfall between Wednesday afternoon and 4 p.m. Friday, while Livermore will likely see about 0.33 inches and San Jose is predicted to get about 0.32 inches. The rainfall will be heavier toward the coast and the north, with Santa Cruz predicted to get 0.57 inches, Half Moon Bay 0.63 inches and San Francisco
0.53 inches, according to a forecast map from the National Weather Service.
“We’re not going to make up for any deficit in the rainfall,” said Steve Anderson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, adding, however, that “we are looking pretty good in terms of getting back to a normal weather pattern (in the Bay Area).”
Anderson said the Bay
Area is not considered to be in a drought, despite December being one of the driest months on record for the region.
In Oakland, it was the driest-ever December on record with 0.09 inches of rain for the month. The next-driest was in 2011 with 0.11 inches. San Jose had its second-driest December with 0.07 inches of rain, trailing its 1989 record of 0.04 inches. Downtown San Francisco saw 0.15 inches, its third-driest since it got almost no rain in 1989.
Meanwhile, the winter
weather is also off to a slow start in the Sierra Nevada — a big difference from the record-high snow totals last year. Snow survey results posted Thursday show the statewide snow levels were 27 percent of normal for the date.
The dry weather has also coincided with poor air quality. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a Spare the Air Alert for the first two days of the new year, banning wood burning indoors and outdoors for the full 24 hours each day.
Air quality in the Bay Area is forecast to be unhealthy, the alert said, so it is illegal for Bay Area residents in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southern Sonoma and southwestern Solano counties to burn wood or other solid fuels in fireplaces, wood stoves and inserts, pellet stoves, outdoor fire-pits, or other woodburning devices.