Strong storm hits Bay Area with heavy rain and damaging winds

Heading into the weekend, the Bay Area was expected to see heavy rain again beginning Friday evening, accompanied by gusty and damaging winds.

The National Weather Service said in its daily forecast discussion for the Bay Area that “heavy” rains would return Friday evening through Saturday, with flooding problems expected through Sunday. A flood warning was in effect for the North Bay from 2pm Friday to 4pm Sunday as excessive rainfall runoff could flood rivers, creeks, creeks and other low lying and flood prone areas.

While most of the flooding issues occurred in the North Bay, a combination of high surf and king tides also led the Weather Service to issue a coastal flood warning through January 13, 2019 for both the lower regions of the North Bay and the San Francisco coast Bay to be released on Monday.

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Further north in Mendocino County, a flood warning was in effect for the Russian River near Hopland from Friday evening through Sunday morning. The weather service said the river would rise above flood stage to 17.2 feet early Saturday afternoon. Flood stage is 15 feet.

The arrival of the next storm front will be accompanied by gusty winds from the south, particularly along coastal areas, Friday night into Saturday. The weather service said the winds were expected to knock down trees and power lines, causing widespread power outages.

A high wind warning has been issued for hills in Marin County and western Sonoma County, the North Bay Coast, San Francisco and the Peninsula Coast from 10 p.m. Friday through 7 a.m. Saturday. Southerly winds were expected to reach 25 to 35 mph and gusts up to 60 mph. The wind advisory was preceded by a wind advisory that was in effect from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and expected wind speeds in the 20 to 30 mph range and gusts of up to 50 mph.

After relatively light rainfall amounts of a few hundredths to a few tenths of an inch early to mid Friday morning, a more widespread band of showers moved across the Northern California coast late Friday morning and early afternoon. Showers would begin in the North Bay and spread to the rest of the Bay Area by late afternoon and evening, reaching the Central Coast overnight Friday and into Saturday.

The weather service said the highest rainfall is expected in far northern Sonoma County overnight Friday into Saturday. Rainfall totals of 2 to 3 inches were expected in the North Bay between Friday and Saturday, and between 3 and 5 inches were expected in the coastal and inland mountains of the North Bay.

Rainfall totals will be between 0.5 and 1 inch in the rest of the Bay Area, with slightly higher amounts in the coastal mountain ranges.

While drier conditions were expected through Sunday, greater chances of precipitation were expected Monday, with precipitation amounts generally lower than the weekend storm.