Scattered showers sweep into the Bay Area before anticipated dry spell
The Bay Area could have seen the last chances for rain for about a week or so as a cold front approached the region and brought widespread scattered showers Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Meanwhile, the storm also was expected to drop more snow on the Sierra Nevada, potentially complicating weekend mountain travel.
Dry conditions are in the forecast for most of next week.
As of Friday at 2:25 p.m., 24-hour precipitation totals included: 1.58 inches at Mill Valley at Mount Tamalpais, 0.09 inch in downtown San Francisco, 0.08 inch at Ben Lomond, 0.06 inch at Mount Diablo, 0.02 inch at the Oakland International Airport and 0.01 inch in Redwood City and Los Altos.
The scattered showers came after a series of storms in December helped alleviate drought conditions for Northern California and dumped several feet of snow on the Sierra Nevada, helping to replenish the state’s snowpack.
December was the 21stwettest on record for San Francisco, which has climate records dating back to 1849, and the Sierra Nevada had one of the top five snowiest months so far.
The storm was expected to drop snow on the Sierra Nevada on Friday. The forecast called for Lassen Park to get 8-12 inches of snow, Donner Pass 3-4 inches, Carson Pass 2-3 inches and Echo Pass, Ebbetts Pass and Sonora Pass 1-2 inches, according to the weather service.
There could be impacts to mountain travel, including delays, during the weekend because of the snowfall.
For the weekend, temperatures in the Bay Area are anticipated to be seasonal but cooler at night, with lows in the 40s and highs in the 50s.
The next shot for rain in the Bay Area is approaching toward the end of next week, but there’s still some uncertainty in the forecast because it’s still a week into the future.
The storm is expected to be similar to Friday’s showers, with light accumulations and amounts up to a tenth of an inch of rain or less.
It has been a wetter water year, which began Oct. 1, compared with previous years. As of Thursday, San Jose has gotten 6.64 inches of rain since Oct. 1, compared with 0.98 of an inch of rain in that same time period last year, according to the weather service.
The city’s rainfall total is 143% of historical averages from 1991 to 2020, and San Jose was 21% of normal this time last year. It has rained 16.75 inches in San Francisco since Oct. 1, compared with 3.05 inches in that time period the previous year.
However, the state is still suffering from a longterm drought after two dry winters in a row. Portions of the state are in “extreme drought,” which has shrunk from 80% on Dec. 7 to about 17% on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Experts say that it will take more rainstorms to completely bring the state back to normal.
“With some of the U.S. Drought Monitor updates, the short term has improved but we’re still in a long-term drought, so we’ll need more rain over a longer period of time,” NWS forecaster Sean Miller said.
“With some of the U.S. Drought Monitor updates, the short term has improved but we’re still in a longterm drought, so we’ll need more rain over a longer period of time.” — Sean Miller, National Weather Service forecaster