Rain drops fell into puddles Thursday, sending smalls bits of splashes everywhere. Cars dripped as if slammed by a carwash. And that was in the East Bay, the area where an anticipated atmospheric river storm showed the lesser version of its force as it hit the region.
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It was expected to be just that powerful, and it was. The unexpected news came in the form of an ever-shrinking period to dry before another system brings more rain early next week — if it even dries at all, according to the National Weather Service.
“We’re still looking at the radar showing a broad range of the storm front across a good portion of the East Bay,” NWS meteorologist Lamont Bain said Thursday afternoon. “We’ll see the prolonged period of rain become more intermittent, but we we won’t see it shut off.”
In other words, rain that was expected to be finished by Thursday night, save for a for a few selected showers, now is expected to morph into more than a few isolated showers that will fall well into Friday, Bain said.
Additionally, another storm system brewing in the southern Pacific Ocean is sending moisture to the area, Bain said. The very beginning of that storm front is likely to mix with the very end of the atmospheric river and push isolated and occasionally heavy showers possibly into Saturday, he said.
As for the atmospheric river that arrived Thursday, Bain said that will continue to recycle itself as it moves east, adding to the cold, windy and gray that will lead into the next front.
“It’s going to be damp,” Bain said. “Even when it’s not raining.”
The wave of rain Thursday came just as expected, with the main storm front arriving near downtown San Francisco and sending its impact primarily up the North Bay, where wind gusts reached 60 mph in the Marin Headlands and more than 4 inches of rain fell in less than a 24-hour period just north of Guerneville, according to a weather service update at 2 p.m.
The rain also pounded the Santa Cruz Mountains, where nearly 5 inches fell at Ben Lomond and more than 3 inches fell in Mt. Umunhum.
Elsewhere according to the weather service, 1½ inches of rain fell at the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport and at the San Francisco International Airport. Richmond received about 1.3 inches and Fremont got an inch. In San Jose, the weather service measured eight-tenths of an inch, while Concord and Livermore each received a half-inch.
It was enough to create a flood advisory for western Alameda County, western Contra Costa County and north central Santa Clara County that was set to last until 3 p.m. The weather service said there were concerns because of water on roadways as well as minor flooding in low-lying areas and regions with poor drainage.
Some of those areas endured minor flooding early Thursday because of poor drainage areas. A separate advisory warned of flooding in northwestern Santa Clara County and north central Santa Cruz County.
As the rain began to lighten later Thursday, so too did the winds. A high wind warning for the North Bay and Marin Hills expired at 10 a.m. Thursday morning, as did a high wind advisory for the Peninsula in place until noon.
Gusts in those areas also blew between 50-60 mph at their height, according to the weather service.
“The winds (were) really strong,” NWS meteorologist Matt Mehle said of the winds that greeted the new day. “They’ve been pretty stout since midnight, and they (got) stronger along with rain.”
The rain took little time affecting power in the region. PG&E said that 4,075 customers region wide were without power early Thursday, but that the figure had been reduced to 1,214 by the afternoon. Of those, 662 were in the North Bay, according to the utility. The Peninsula at its height had 2,444 customers without power, but all but 22 were restored by 11 a.m.
