Another round of “dangerous” wind and rain is expected to hit the Bay Area — Orange County Register
Another windy deluge is expected to hit the Bay Area earlier this week, potentially sending some creeks over their banks while raising the specter of widespread power outages with windswept trees falling onto power lines.
The latest atmospheric, river-fed storm is expected to hit the Bay Area late Sunday night – first dropping rain over the North Bay before moving south early Monday morning toward the Peninsula, East Bay and South Bay overnight, said Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. He warned residents to prepare for the storm by signing up for emergency alerts given the high likelihood of flooding and strong winds in parts of the Bay Area.
“This is going to be dangerous,” Murdock said.
The storm marks the last atmospheric flow to drench Northern California in recent weeks, taking the region from one of the driest three-year runs in recorded history to a state of perpetual flood risk. Though recent wet weather has begun to ease drought conditions in Northern California, experts say more moisture is needed to end the region’s historic drought.
The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for most of the Bay Area through Tuesday. Rivers most at risk of flooding include the Alameda Creek near Niles Canyon and Sunol; Arroyo de la Laguna near Verona in the province of Alameda; Coyote Creek at Milpitas and Edenvale; Pacheco Creek near Dunneville in the South Bay; and the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz County. To the north, the Russian River could flood at Guerneville.
The creeks most at risk of flooding in Santa Clara County include Uvas Creek along Highway 101 in Gilroy; San Francisquito Creek in Palo Alto; Ross Creek on Cherry Avenue in San Jose; Upper Penitencia Creek at Mabury and King Streets in San Jose; Guadalupe River on West Alma Avenue in San Jose; Sunnyvale East Channel on Tasman Drive in Sunnyvale; and West Little Llagas Creek at Morgan Hill.
Updated forecast rainfall totals for Round 2 expected to begin between 10:00pm and midnight tonight. The heaviest rain will occur between 4am and 4pm on Monday. Slight decrease in totals from the northern and southern Bay Area valleys. More details in the follow-up tweet.#CAwx
1/x pic.twitter.com/zs2HzaehAH
— NWS Bay Area 🌉 (@NWSBayArea) January 8, 2023
The first raindrops are expected to fall across North Bay around 9 p.m. Sunday, with the heaviest bands of rain hitting about an hour later, Murdock said. In San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, the first rain begins to fall an hour or two before midnight, with the heaviest rain falling a few hours before sunrise on Monday.
The heaviest downpours should subside around noon on Monday, although chances for additional precipitation should continue into Tuesday.
Most of the Bay Area — including San Francisco and Oakland — could see 2 to 4 inches of rain through Tuesday, Murdock said. San Jose is expected to be closer than 2 inches from this storm.
The heaviest rainfall should fall over the waterlogged Santa Cruz Mountains, where 5 to 7 inches of rain are expected, with up to 8 inches seen in places. To the south, it could rain even more in the Santa Lucia Mountains along the Big Sur coast, with forecasts saying that area will receive up to 10 inches of rain in some places.
In addition, dangerously stormy weather could again increase the risk of power outages from trees falling on power lines.
Wind speeds of 25 to 35 miles per hour are expected across much of the Bay Area’s low-lying regions, with gusts potentially reaching 60 miles per hour, the National Weather Service said while issuing a high wind warning. Along the Bay Area coast and peaks, forecasters are expecting wind speeds of 35 to 50 mph and gusts of up to 80 mph.
“This will also be a wind event,” Murdock said. “Very strong winds – and when you have strong winds, after seeing a lot of moisture in the ground, you can see trees falling.”
A strong wind warning was issued for our region from 8:00 p.m. tonight until 4:00 p.m. Monday. Expect southerly winds near 20 to 35 mph with gusts of up to 60 mph in the valley areas and 35 to 50 mph with gusts of up to 80 mph along the coast and the highest peaks. #CAwx #strong wind pic.twitter.com/VbzaXV22ez
— NWS Bay Area 🌉 (@NWSBayArea) January 8, 2023
The storm comes after a weaker atmospheric river-fed storm swept through the area on Saturday – the last remnants of which dropped hail and 40-mph winds over parts of the North Bay and San Francisco late Saturday night and early Sunday morning .
About 8,500 Pacific Gas & Electric customers were out of the Bay Area as of 11 a.m. Sunday morning due to the storms, most of them in the North Bay and Peninsula, the utility said.
Later this week, three more storms fed by atmospheric flows sweeping across the Pacific are expected to hit Northern California. Although none of them are expected to be as strong as the storm that hit late Sunday night and Monday, they could still cause flooding damage in parts of the Bay Area, said Michael Anderson, a California state climatologist.
He said federal funds have been mobilized to support the National Weather Service’s forecasts. Five Air Force C-130s and a plane from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are flying over the Pacific Ocean — all the way to Hawaii — to collect data on the coming storms.
“These next few storms are really going to hit some flood levels,” Anderson said while speaking to reporters Saturday. “There’s a lot to consider and follow.”
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/01/08/bay-area-storms-another-round-of-dangerous-wind-rain-expected-to-hit-bay-area/ Another round of “dangerous” wind and rain is expected to hit the Bay Area — Orange County Register
