The Bay Area is expected to observe a cold front arriving from the Pacific Northwest across the region, starting from the north going to the south from midday Monday to Tuesday.
Weather experts anticipate the system to bring about half an inch of rain to several urban locations in the area. However, they said that the phenomenon would not be at the same level as the atmospheric river that came last week.
Another Round of Rain
“This system is an order of magnitude weaker than the last system. This is what I would describe as a run-of-the-mill mid-winter system,” Meteorologist Drew Peterson of the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office said.
The storm was situated about 300 miles west of San Francisco and over the Pacific Ocean early Monday morning before sunrise. Late in the morning up to early in the afternoon, it is expected to make landfall, hitting the North Bay first. In the late afternoon, rainfall would increasingly spread throughout the San Francisco metro area, East Bay, and South Bay.
Another round of downpours, mainly light and scattered, is expected to bring more rain on Wednesday after the initial passage of the frontal system.
With the North Bay clearing out first, rain is expected to last until Tuesday. For urban and valley areas, estimated rainfall totals range from 0.25 to 0.75 inches, up to 1.5 inches at higher elevations, and up to 2 inches in the North Bay Mountains. Peterson said that San Francisco, Oakland, and other metro regions along the bayfront are likely to see 0.5 inches.
The system is expected to bring winds that would keep kicking up on Monday morning and rising in strength through the day.
“Winds are going to be about half as strong as they were with the last storm system. We had peak gusts that reached 80 mph at the breeziest locations with the last system, and with this one, 40 mph is forecast. In comparison with the last storm, this one is significantly weaker,” Peterson said, the San Francisco Gate reported.
A drying pattern starts on Wednesday night with high-pressure building over the area. It continues throughout the week, with temperatures rising and afternoon highs by the weekend in the mid-to-upper 60s.
