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Another windy deluge is expected to slam into the Bay Area early this week, raising concerns about flooding along the region’s rivers, along with widespread power outages from wind-battered trees falling on power lines.
The latest atmospheric river storm is expected to begin impacting the Bay Area late Sunday night — first dropping rain over the North Bay before moving south overnight toward the Peninsula, East Bay and the South Bay early Monday morning, said Brayden Murdock, a National Weather Service meteorologist. He warned residents to prepare for the storm by signing up for emergency alerts, given the high likelihood of flooding and high winds in parts of the Bay Area.
“This is going to be dangerous,” Murdock said.
The storm marks the latest atmospheric river to drench Northern California over the last couple of weeks, whipsawing the region from one of its driest three-year runs in recorded history to a state of perpetual flood risk. Still, even though the recent wet weather has begun to alleviate drought conditions across Northern California, experts say it has yet to fully end the region’s historic drought.
The National Weather Service issued a flood watch through Tuesday for almost the entire Bay Area. Among the rivers most at risk of flooding are the Russian River near Guerneville; Alameda Creek near Niles Canyon and Sunol, Arroyo de la Laguna at Verona in Alameda County; Coyote Creek at Milpitas and at Edenvale; and Pacheco Creek near Dunneville in the South Bay. The San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz County is also at risk of overflowing.
The first drops of rain are expected to begin falling over the North Bay around 9 p.m. Sunday, with the heaviest bands of rain hitting about an hour later, Murdock said. In San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, the first rain will begin falling an hour or two before midnight, with the heaviest rain hitting a few hours before sunrise on Monday.
The heaviest downpours should begin to subside by about noon Monday, though chances for additional precipitation should linger through Tuesday.
Most of the Bay Area — including San Francisco and Oakland — could see 2 to 4 inches of rain by Tuesday, Murdock said. San Jose is expected to see closer to 2 inches from this storm.
The heaviest rainfall should fall over the waterlogged Santa Cruz Mountains, where 5 to 7 inches of rain is expected to fall, with a few places seeing as much as 8 inches. To the south, the Santa Lucia Mountains along the Big Sur coast could see even more rain, with forecasts calling for that area to receive up to 10 inches of rain in some spots.
In addition, high winds could pose a significant threat to the region, with gusts expected to hit 70 to 80 mph across the Bay Area’s highest peaks, Murdock said. Throughout the region’s urban centers, wind gusts could routinely hit 35 to 45 mph — once again raising the risk of power outages from trees falling into power lines.
“This is also going to be a wind event,” Murdock said. “Very strong winds — and when you do have strong winds after seeing plenty of moisture in the soil, you can see trees fall.”
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