The main front of a storm system that is expected to be the final one for at least a week powered through the Bay Area on Thursday, bringing slow, steady rain that then gave way to patchy skies.
The weather’s primary impact, more so even than the rain, might be what it will do to the ocean waves, the National Weather Service said.
“In the wake of this system and the one that preceded it earlier this week, the waves are really going to build up,” NWS meteorologist Brayden Murdock said. “We’re gonna have a good chance to see some 20-foot breakers, and a longer-period chance for sneaker waves.”
The weather service said a beach hazards statement will remain in effect along the Pacific Coast through 10 p.m. Monday. Most waves are expected to break between 13 and 18 feet.
As for the rain, it added to an already saturated region. The storm system was the fourth to pass through the area since the start of November, though the weather service said it was the least powerful of them. Murdock said the main front hit the North Bay around 9 p.m. Wednesday and became more widespread through Thursday morning.
“It’s going to be very scattered,” he said. “The cloud cover will try to lift and you may see it get a big higher, but it won’t lift entirely.”
By 11 a.m. the weather service measured 24-hour rainfall totals of about a half-inch of rain in downtown Oakland, Union City, Hayward and Richmond. The agency measured about one-third of an inch in Ben Lomond in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and about a quarter-inch at both San Jose Mineta International Airport and San Francisco International Airport. Concord received six-hundredths of an inch.
“It’s going to be very spotty by the time we get to Thursday night,” Murdock said of the rain. “By late Thursday, it clears up entirely.”
It should stay clear for at least a week, according to the weather service. High temperatures will remain in the low 60s and high 50s in the warmest places.
