Bay Area residents are bracing for a deluge this weekend as the National Weather Service (NWS) predicts a powerful storm system will sweep across the California coast, bringing heavy rain and strong winds. The NWS Bay Area forecast warns of "increasingly HEAVY rain, STRONG and GUSTY southerly winds" from late Saturday night through Sunday. Areas are already under a Flood Watch from late Saturday afternoon through Monday morning, with the potential for significant rises in streams and rivers.
A rapidly strengthening low pressure system over the California coastal waters late Saturday night and Sunday will bring increasingly HEAVY rain, STRONG and GUSTY southerly winds to the forecast area. Here's the latest 3 day rainfall forecast ending 4 am Monday morning. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/w0lS6etSiW
— NWS Bay Area 🌉 (@NWSBayArea) February 2, 2024
Escalating to potentially hazardous levels, the winds are expected to peak around 50 mph within the Wind Advisory zones, and in areas under the Wind Warning, gusts could surpass 60 mph, conditions that are set to intensify as the storm hits. According to an NWS Forecast Office release, the dominant concern is that this could be as much about the wind as it is about the rain, posing heightened risks to the Southern counties of the NWS coverage area, among-other locales; a High Wind Warning is in place from the early hours to the late night of Sunday, February 4th.
The Area Forecast Discussion by the National Weather Service San Francisco CA details that while scattered showers are expected to continue Saturday, the powerful storm system slated for the night will mark the beginning of intensified rain and wind. This particular storm is predicted to focus more on the Central Coast than previous systems, placing areas like Big Sur and the Santa Lucias in line for the highest rainfall amounts, estimating totals between 5 to 7 inches.
Rainfall projections, updated for the period of Saturday evening through Monday morning, note variability across the region, with the Santa Clara Valley and interior East Bay expecting 1 to 2 inches while the higher elevations could potentially face up to or above 7 inches at the highest peaks of the Big Sur Coast. Showery conditions are likely to persist into the following work week but are not anticipated to be as severe, offering some respite after the storm's passage, as highlighted in the provided NWS forecast discussion.
