Holiday week should be wet and wild
Multiple inches of rain expected in Bay Area, with several feet of snow on tap for the mountains
A one-two punch of storm systems is expected to drape the Bay Area in rainy weather for much of the upcoming week while potentially making holiday travel in the Sierra Nevada mountains “very challenging to impossible,” meteorologists say.
Sunny skies should give way to rain across the Bay Area tonight as the first of two systems from the Gulf of Alaska moves into the region. The storm is expected to kick off a week of soggy weather that could drop up to 3 inches of rain on the Bay Area’s three largest cities while further soaking the Santa Cruz mountains, National Weather Service meteorologist Brooke Bingaman said.
“It’s going to be a wet Christmas week, and through the holiday weekend,” she said.
To the east, the storms are expected to dump several feet of snow over the Sierra Nevada mountains over the next week, making travel “very challenging to impossible at times” through the holiday weekend, Zach Tolby, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said.
Several feet of snow — including possibly 5 to 8 feet along the highest reaches of the Sierra — are forecast to hit beginning Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday, and continue through Dec. 26, said Anna Wanless, another National Weather Service meteorologist.
“We know a lot of people are going to be on the roads, and we just want them to be aware that it’s going to be a difficult holiday travel situation,” Wanless said.
In the Bay Area, the highest rainfall totals through Dec. 26 are forecast to be concentrated along the Santa Cruz mountains and Big Sur, which could get 5 to 7 inches of rain, Bingaman said. The Sonoma County coastal mountains also could get 7 to 8 inches of rain.
More low-lying areas should expect less precipitation. San Jose is forecast to get 1.75 inches of rain over the next week, while Oakland and
San Francisco could see 2 to 3 inches of rain, Bingaman said.
In a change from the recent atmospheric river deluges to hit the Bay Area, the upcoming systems are expected to bring slow, steady rain, meaning a potentially lower risk of flooding or dangerous runoff over burn scars, she said.
By Friday, snow levels may drop to 3,000 feet, carrying the outside potential that areas such as Mt. Hamilton or Mt. Diablo may see another dusting of snow in time for Christmas Eve, Bingaman said.
The upcoming storms come as much of the Bay Area and California remain mired in extreme and exceptional drought, despite multiple atmospheric river storms in recent months. And while there are encouraging signs of relief lately, experts say far more precipitation is needed over the next few months to make a dent in the state’s longstanding drought.
The most recent storm last week raised California’s statewide snowpack from 19% of average on Dec. 10 to 98% as of Friday, according to the National Weather Service’s California Nevada River Forecast Center.
Since the start of October, 4.85 inches of rain has fallen at the San Jose International Airport. That’s 153% of normal for that time period, Bingaman said.
Rainfall totals are at 217% of normal at the airports in Oakland and San Francisco since Oct. 1, she said. Oakland has received 10.98 inches of rain in that time, while San Francisco has recorded 11.24 of rain so far.
“The positive is we’ve got a good, strong start to this wet season,” Bingaman said. “So there’s cause to be optimistic. But the bulk of our rain in the wet season comes in January, February and March. So as long as we continue to get precipitation for the rest of the wet season, then we should stay on track, in terms of at least helping us get out of the drought.”