High clouds began to collect within the San Francisco Bay Area on Saturday afternoon as an early fall storm headed towards the Northern California coast.
“By early Sunday morning, most of the Bay Area will start seeing rain, if they haven’t already,” mentioned Brooke Bingaman, a forecaster for the National Weather Service within the San Francisco Bay workplace.
The storm, which is shifting south from the Gulf of Alaska, is predicted to carry record-breaking rainfall to some elements of the Bay Area and could additionally present some reduction to firefighters battling the Mosquito fireplace in Placer County — the most important wildfire within the state this 12 months.
The fireplace space “is expected to get some precipitation late Sunday or early Monday,” mentioned Scott Row, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Sacramento. “Most of Northern California is expected to get rain.”
The climate system might carry moisture as far south as Santa Barbara. Ventura and Los Angeles can be largely unaffected.
Historical information counsel it’s not unusual for Northern California to get rain in September. What is extra uncommon is the quantity of rain the storm is predicted to carry — as much as double and even quadruple the month-to-month common in some areas.
For instance, present forecasts have downtown San Francisco receiving a complete of 1 inch of rain within the subsequent few days. The metropolis’s common month-to-month rainfall for September is 1 / 4 of an inch.
Precipitation is predicted to be heavy Sunday, however forecasters mentioned the storm is mostly anticipated to be useful, not harmful. Some minor nuisance flooding is feasible, and with wind speeds of as much as 20 to 30 mph and gusts of as much as 45 mph alongside the coast and within the coastal mountains, energy outages might happen.
If you reside in part of California that’s not anticipated to see rain this time round, don’t fret an excessive amount of, mentioned Kristen Stewart, a meteorologist on the National Weather Service’s workplace in Oxnard.
“We still have a whole winter ahead of us,” she mentioned. “Hopefully more of it will come.”
