Bay Area residents, brace yourselves for a wet and possibly wild weekend. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), a cold front swooping in will douse San Francisco and the Central Coast with "the most intense rain Friday through early Saturday," and you'll want to keep those umbrellas handy through Sunday. If you thought it was just going to be a light sprinkle, think again, as the NWS is warning of possible thunderstorms that could pack quite the punch with lightning and strong gusts of wind.
It's a classic scenario of "when it rains, it pours," with the NWS telling us to be on the lookout for "localized flooding, and small hail" as a result of these anticipated storms. Now get this, the NWS Bay Area even took to Twitter early Saturday with a radar that looked like a bucket of popcorn, signalling widely scattered heavy showers and a heads-up that by the afternoon, we could see these turn into serious thunderstorms, so keep your eyes peeled.
📡Radar Update 6:20 AM - Who likes popcorn? 🍿 Popcorn city on the morning radar with widely scattered showers. Some of these showers will produce brief heavy rain. We'll be watching these showers this afternoon as they may develop into thunderstorms. ⛈#cawx pic.twitter.com/CNlJyAVriw
— NWS Bay Area 🌉 (@NWSBayArea) March 23, 2024
Moving further into the weekend, the Area Forecast Discussion released by the NWS paints a picture of "breezy winds, rain showers, and even a few thunderstorms," making it clear that there's just no avoiding this soggy predicament. And while Monday and Tuesday might offer a brief dry spell, don't get too comfortable because mid-week is bringing more of the wet stuff our way.
For those navigating the skies or hitting the waves, take note because there are advisories out there that you're going to want to heed; we're talking "Small Craft Advisory" from Saturday afternoon to Sunday for certain parts of the bay, so mariners might want to think twice before setting sail and with increasing thunderstorm chances and those post-frontal showers sticking around through Sunday, it might be wise to just stay on dry land, and while wave heights might simmer down early next week, don't think this is over; by Wednesday or Thursday, another system is forecasted to bring rain our way.
