Bay Area Braces For Atmospheric River Early Next Week: NWS

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA — While most of the country shivers, the Bay Area is expected to bask in relative warmth over the weekend.

But one of the biggest storms of the year is expected to bring heavy rains to the region early next week, according to the National Weather Service.

An atmospheric river is expected to bring 2 to 4 inches to the Bay Area with the heaviest rains expected for Tuesday, NWS Meteorologist Brooke Bingaman told Patch.

“The amount of moisture that’s in the atmosphere is 300 percent of normal,” Bingaman said.
“This storm will be impacting the entirely of the West Coast.”

The heaviest rains are expected in coastal North Bay mountains of Sonoma County, which could see up to 4 inches of the wet stuff, and parts of Mendocino County could see as much as 5 inches, Bingaman said.

The storm is expected to arrive in the North Bay Monday afternoon with light rains spreading to the rest of the Bay Area by the evening.

Most of the West Coast is in the storm’s crosshairs, with the area from the Oregon border to San Luis Obispo at greatest risk for excessive rain.

The heaviest rains are expected early Tuesday morning.

Motorists traveling between the Bay Area and Southern California will likely want to avoid the roads on Tuesday.

Precipitation associated with this storm is expected to linger into Wednesday, but more rain is expected later in the week.

“We should stay in a wet unsettled weather pattern for the rest of this year,” Bingaman said.

Colin McCarthy, a UC Davis atmospheric science student who reports on the weather on his @US_Stormwatch Twitter account, described a “parade of storms is going to slam into California after Christmas into New Year’s bringing massive precipitation amounts, potentially measured in feet.”