Between 2 and 4 inches of rain doused much of the Bay Area Wednesday and Thursday, with rainfall totals as high as 5 inches at some higher elevations, according to the National Weather Service.
The region received the most rainfall from Skyline Boulevard along the Peninsula down to the Santa Cruz Mountains, according to data from the weather service's Bay Area office, with up to 5 inches in some areas.
The Bay Area is only expected to have a one-day reprieve Friday from rainy and windy conditions as weather service officials are forecasting two more "significant" storm systems to enter the region, one on Saturday and Sunday and one on Monday and Tuesday.
Palo Alto city crews are continuing to clean up from this week's storm in preparation for the weekend's rainfall. All four sandbag stations are currently stocked with supplies. The city requests that residents keep their sandbags for possible use in the coming days.
The city has closed its Community Resource Center but libraries are all open on Friday with their normal operating hours. Community members who lose power at their homes and would like a warm place to visit, relax and charge devices can come to the library, the city said in an online update.
Open space staff are working to clear debris and make roads and trails safe for visitors at Foothills Nature Preserve, which has partially reopened.
The city reported that all roadways are currently open. If power outages continue, street signals may be out. Motorists should treat intersections without working signals as four-way stops.
How the rest of the region fared
Higher elevations throughout the North Bay also received upwards of 3 and 4 inches of rain during thd mid-week storm, with measurement sites in Angwin in Napa County receiving 4.04 inches and St. Helena receiving 4.32 inches.
Rainfall at most measurement sites in the East Bay sat between 2.5 and 3 inches while San Francisco received 1.33 inches, according to the weather service.
The rain and high winds, with gusts reaching as high as 100 mph in some parts of the Bay Area, caused power outages for nearly half a million customers, according to PG&E.
Officials with the utility company said some 440,000 customers had lost power due to the two-day storm, with power restored to roughly 325,000 of those customers as of noon Thursday.
"We anticipate that those customers that are still without power will take a little bit longer to restore because we don't have access to many of the areas or we have really dangerous conditions for our crews," said Janisse Quinones, PG&E's senior vice president for electric operations.
"Trees are falling around them, we have flooding and soil movement when they're trying to restore service," Quinones said, adding that crews in Santa Cruz and along the Peninsula were briefly pulled from both areas for their safety due to landslides and high winds.
In an effort to restore power to those affected by the storm, PG&E is receiving mutual aid from utilities in other California cities as well as Oregon, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
More strong rain on the way
The heaviest storm system is expected early next week, with an "extreme" risk level of flooding and mudslides and wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph.
Between 1 and 3 inches of rain are likely on Saturday and Sunday in much of the Bay Area and along the Central Coast, with 2-4 inches likely on Monday and Tuesday.
Higher elevations could see as much as 6 inches on all four days, according to the weather service, and up to 8 inches in the North Bay mountains.
"A series of potent weather systems will impact our area this weekend into next week," the weather service's Bay Area office said Friday. "Associated hazards include widespread flooding, damaging winds and dangerous beach and marine conditions."
Both storms have the potential to be deadly, the weather service said.
Forecasters have suggested that storm systems could continue pelting Northern California into mid-January. Weather forecast updates from the weather service can be found at weather.gov/mtr.
Come back to Palo Alto Online and visit us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as we continue to track the upcoming storms.
Comments
Registered user
Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Jan 6, 2023 at 7:32 pm
Registered user
on Jan 6, 2023 at 7:32 pm
:"Between 1 and 3 inches of rain are likely on Saturday and Sunday in much of the Bay Area and along the Central Coast, with 2-4 inches likely on Monday and Tuesday....
The city has closed its Community Resource Center but libraries are all open on Friday with their normal operating hours. Community members who lose power at their homes and would like a warm place to visit, relax and charge devices can come to the library, the city said in an online update."
If the storm's likely Saturday-Tuesday, "normal" operating hours won't help much since most PA libraries are still closed from Saturday evenings until Tuesday.
Now might be a fine time to think about finally restoring full pre-Covid "normal" operating hours.
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 7, 2023 at 8:47 am
Registered user
on Jan 7, 2023 at 8:47 am
What I want to know is how much rain Palo Alto got per storm and total this rain season? It seems impossible to get this info from newspapers or online.
When I look, SJ is mentioned and then RWC with very different amounts, but no towns inbetween.
Anyone know how to find this info for Palo Alto?
I used to have a plastic rain gauge jammed into the back yard to keep track - wish I still had it.
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 7, 2023 at 12:12 pm
Registered user
on Jan 7, 2023 at 12:12 pm
The Merc shows Palo Alto has gotten 11.45” of rain since Oct. 1, 2022.
That’s great to know.
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 7, 2023 at 4:37 pm
Registered user
on Jan 7, 2023 at 4:37 pm
Rainfall in Palo Alto is not collected and runs into the creeks and the Baylands. Our ground is saturated and any more rain will just cause more pooling, flooding and eventually enter the Bay.
I read that some places it is illegal to capture and use rainwater for various outdoor uses, but that could be incorrect. However having rain butts and storage could be helpful for summer watering. At the same time, that can become breeding ground for mosquitoes, so it is a hard call.
Whether we get an inch or more this weekend, it would be nice to have a couple of weeks without any rain as saturation point in our parks as well as in the foothills could lead to further problems. Trees are falling because the root systems are so wet in saturated ground.
The water is needed but it is needed in our reservoirs, not flooding our streets and running straight into the Bay. What we really need now is a couple of weeks of dry, sunny weather so that we can repair damage and dry out.
Registered user
another community
on Jan 7, 2023 at 6:10 pm
Registered user
on Jan 7, 2023 at 6:10 pm
In LA, any BP's for new buildouts or remodels require containers to save rainwater. They're pretty hideous. Web Link
It seems to me that the ground is saturated and roots are crying for help, but the real problem is the wind that keeps blowing them literally out of the ground. Which is a bone of contention for insurance that doesn't cover floods but does cover wind damage. Which came first, the wind or the flood? Which factor is the catalyst for a claim? I think this year's storms will have insurance companies fine tuning what they will not cover.