More rain, chance of hail and snow coming

The weather forecast Saturday for the Bay Area is for more of the same — with one twist.

Expect rainbows. Scattered showers that dropped about a quarter to one third of an inch of rain on Friday across the region are expected to continue Saturday, creating prime conditions for bands of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violent to light up the sky.

Rainbows are elusive phenomena, so there’s no guarantee.

But “this is kind of rainbow weather,” said Duane Dykema, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service.

The arch of colors often appear during Intermittent periods of rain, when sunlight peeks through and is refracted and dispersed by rain droplets.

The rain is expected to taper off toward the end of the day on Saturday, with temperatures across the Bay Area initially dropping down the upper 30s or low 40s.

Sunday is expected to be warmer, ranging from the upper 50s or low 60s, Dykema said.

The storm that pounded the Golden State on the first day of March dumped more rain in one day across the Bay Area than the entire month of February.

During the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. on Friday, about a third of an inch of rain fell in Oakland; and about a quarter to a third of an inch in San Jose. San Rafael and the North Bay got about half an inch, the meteorologist said.

“There were lots of reports of small hail across the Bay Area,” he said, “and of thunderstorms over the ocean.

Snow levels around the Bay Area dropped down to about 2,500 feet on Friday and are expected to remain the same on Saturday, according to the weather service.

More snow is expected to fall Saturday in the Sierra Nevada, after widespread whiteout conditions were reported on Thursday.

All of California is facing massive precipitation deficits, and forecasters warn that the historic odds of even getting close to normal rainfall totals are near zero — even if both March and April are wetter than usual.

For instance, San Jose has received only 5.97 inches of rain since the season began Oct. 1, far below the normal total of 11.49 inches.

February concluded as one of the driest on record in the Bay Area. San Francisco endured the 16th driest February in 169 years of records with .42 inches of rain, half of which fell in the final few hours of the month Wednesday night, according to Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Service.

San Jose ended February with .40 inches of rain, the 13th driest February in 125 years of records.

For the water year, which began Oct. 1, rainfall totals across Northern California generally range from 50 to 60 percent of normal, including Oakland (57 percent), San Francisco (54 percent) and San Jose (49 percent).