Sun-splashed days ahead for Bay Area as warming trend takes hold

San Jose reached 80 degrees just once this year during a record-setting warm winter

For the first time since early February, the Bay Area can look forward to a week of sun-splashed afternoons and warmer temperatures.

The warming trend is expected to reach its peak Thursday, when some locations could hit 80 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

After temperatures in the 60s on Monday, the weather is expected to warm as much as 10 degrees above normal by Wednesday and Thursday, with many cities reaching daily highs in the upper 60s and 70s.

Some South Bay cities, including San Jose, could reach the low 80s on Thursday, according to the weather service. San Jose hit 80 degrees just once this year, on Feb. 9, during a stretch of record-setting warm winter weather.

In Oakland, sunny skies and temperatures in the low-70s are expected Tuesday through Friday, with a high of 73 expected Thursday for the A’s season-opening game against the Los Angeles Angels.

Cooler temperatures are expected by the weekend.

Despite the warming trend, rain is not absent from the extended forecast. The weather service is forecasting a chance of rain next week for Northern California.

Following a stretch of record warm weather to begin February, much of Northern California faced staggering precipitation deficits, renewing talks of a drought. On Feb. 13, the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of one-third of California’s water, sat at 22 percent of its historic average. That was lower than any Feb. 13, even during the worst years of the most recent drought, including 2015, when it was 26 percent on the same date.

But a string of late-season storms has boosted precipitation totals across the state, including the Sierra snowpack, which as of Monday stood at 58 percent of normal for this time of year.

Rainfall totals in Northern California have benefited from the late-season storms. In December, most Bay Area cities were between 35 and 45 percent of normal. As of Sunday, rainfall totals for the water year, which began Oct. 1, include Eureka (30.11 inches of rain, 93 percent of normal), San Francisco (13.46 inches, 65 percent), Oakland (11.77 inches, 66 percent), Santa Rosa (20.39, 65 percent) and San Jose (7.19 inches, 53 percent).

The precipitation amount so far this winter in the eight-station Northern Sierra Index, a key collection of rain gauges from Lake Tahoe to the Mount Shasta area in the watersheds above many of California’s largest reservoirs, stood at 80 percent of normal Monday.