Rain to soak Bay Area through the weekend; high surf advisory re-issued
Following a Christmas Day reprieve from a parade of storms, rain moves back into the Bay Area starting late Christmas night and into the weekend, forecasters said.
Wednesday morning began with some dense fog and chilly temperatures across the region after overnight lows in some of the more sheltered inland areas dropped to the mid 30s, while the coast and bayshore areas dipped into the mid-to-upper 40s.
A frost advisory for portions of Sonoma, Monterey, and San Benito counties was canceled Wednesday morning as temperatures improved. Daytime highs around the Bay Area Wednesday were expected to reach the mid to high 50s on the coast and inland, and the low to mid 50s around the bay. Overnight lows will be mostly in the 40s.
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New high surf advisory for Northern California coast
Conditions along the coast remained a concern following deadly high surf and damaging waves earlier this week. The National Weather Service issued another high surf advisory from 10 a.m. Thursday to 4 p.m. Sunday, urging wave watchers to keep a safe distance and inexperienced swimmers to stay out of the water.
"While these waves are smaller than the monsters we got on Monday, the coast is still dangerous," the Weather Service said in its forecast discussion for the San Francisco Bay Area. "Let's get through this weekend without another ocean fatality."
Earlier this week the conditions along the coast appeared to be a factor in possibly three deaths on the Santa Cruz County and Monterey County coastlines. The high surf also destroyed a portion of the Santa Cruz Wharf on Monday.
Bay Area rain forecast through the weekend
The day began with a lingering flood advisory for areas around Green Valley Creek at Martinelli Road and Mark West Creek in Forestville, Sonoma County, where there was minor flooding Wednesday morning, the Weather Service reported. Across the Bay Area, partially cloudy skies were expected to fill in throughout the day as a new series of storms set in later Wednesday night.
Most of the rain will be concentrated across the North Bay, where the continued rainfall on the already-saturated soils would increase the chances of minor flooding and small landslides. Based on current forecasts, the Weather Service said the North Bay could receive some 1 to 3 inches of rain by the weekend and up to 5 inches in higher elevations.
The rest of the Bay Area will see the most impactful rain Thursday night into Friday, with coastal ranges and the San Francisco-Oakland-Richmond region seeing more consistent rainfall, the Weather Service said. Rainfall totals of 1 to 2 inches were expected in the Santa Cruz Mountains, 0.5 to 1.5 inches for the Bay Area and 0.25 to 0.75 in the Monterey Bay region.
A potential lull in the storm series could come early next week, forecasters said. Longer-term guidance shows a slight lean to above-average temperatures and below-average rainfall for the first week of the New Year.
