A cold front swept California’s San Francisco Bay Area Saturday night into Sunday evening, delivering refreshing soakings of rain considered significant since summer hasn’t even ended.
The downtown San Francisco gauge recorded 0.33 inch on Sunday — while this is far from the 2.01 record for Sept. 18 set in 1959, ABC 7 meteorologist Drew Tuma said on Twitter that it’s “the single wettest day in more than eight months.” The last time the downtown gauge recorded more rain was Jan. 3 with 0.34 inch.
Coastal mountains of Sonoma County, especially the communities of Venado and Cazadero, saw the highest totals with over 2 inches, the National Weather Service said. These spots usually measure the most rain with any storm that hits the Bay Area. The Santa Cruz Mountains also recorded substantial rain.
Here’s a look at the rainfall totals from locations around the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the weather service.
Venado: 2.87 inches
Cazadero: 2.66 inches
Santa Cruz Mountains, Loma Prieta: 2.24 inches
Mount Diablo: 1.78 inches
Angwin: 1.56 inches
Ben Lomond: 1.38 inches
Mount Tamalpais: 1.22 inches
La Honda: 0.94 inch
Kentfield: 0.90 inch
Marin Civic Center: 0.86 inch
Napa: 0.59 inch
Danville: 0.54 inch
San Jose International Airport: 0.51 inch
Vacaville: 0.43 inch
Downtown San Francisco: 0.33 inch
Oakland Museum: 0.15 inch
San Francisco Airport: 0.10 inch
While skies were mostly clear across the region on Monday morning, more rain is on the way, Dalton Behringer, a meteorologist with the weather service said.
“There is a rain band coming east of the East Bay and then another band off shore,” Behringer said. “Those will slowly move on land throughout the day. The rain will generally be lighter than Sunday but there may be some isolated pockets of heavier rain.”
The chances for precipitation ends by Wednesday morning with the cold front moving out of the area and Thursday marks the start of a warming trend that will peak over the weekend. San Francisco is expected to reach a high of 78 degrees on Saturday and inland locations are forecast to be in the 90s on Saturday and Sunday.
As of Monday morning, there were no off-shore wind events in the forecast, Behringer said. These desiccating winds are common in the Bay Area in September and October and increase wildfire risk.