Bay Area forecasters bumped up projected rainfall totals for an atmospheric river that moved into the region Thursday morning.
Thursday morning, light rain was falling in the North Bay, and the rainfall is expected to intensify and spread across the region this afternoon and continue into Friday, with lingering showers Saturday. The heaviest rain is forecast to fall in the Bay Area this afternoon into the evening, Brayden Murdock, a forecaster with the weather service, said.
Thursday through Saturday, the weather service predicts low-lying areas, including San Francisco, will pick up 1 to 3 inches of rain; inland hills, such as the East Bay hills, 3 to 6 inches; the Santa Cruz Mountains 4 to 6 inches, with locally higher amounts up to 8 inches; and the Santa Lucia Range along the Big Sur Coast 8 to 10 inches, with the wettest spots recording up to 12 inches. These rainfall totals are slightly higher than those released Wednesday.
Caltrans workers Kyle Ingle, left, and Zach Westerhuis work to clear a drain next to Highway 101 in Paso Robles as a storm batters San Luis Obispo County on Jan. 9, 2023.The heavy rains could trigger flooding on creeks, streams, rivers, roadways and low-lying areas, and a flood watch is in effect for the Bay Area Thursday afternoon through Saturday morning.
"With the rainfall, the concern is definitely flooding," Dhuyvetter said."The grounds can't really hold any more water. The rain is going to just go right over those soils. A lot of that water is just going to run off and collect in the rivers. We are expecting flooding along some main-stem rivers. We've got our eyes on some rivers in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, including the Salinas, San Lorenzo, Pajaro and Carmel rivers.
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