Thunderstorms, gusty winds and hail are expected to pummel the region Sunday afternoon and Monday as the winter-like storm moves in and stays in place through early Tuesday.
“Moderate rainfall throughout the day on Sunday with gusty winds and some lingering showers on Monday,” Mark Strudley, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey, Calif., told the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
Rainfall should be less than the inch of rain that fell earlier in the week, Strudley said.
But the two storms presumably signal the hoped-for end of the drought that has punished California for the past several years and forced area reservoirs to their lowest water levels since the 1800s.
Sunday’s storm is expected to bring more than an inch of rain to higher elevations in the North Bay, with around a half-inch falling in San Francisco and Oakland, Strudley said.
Winds as high as 20-30 mph are expected to accompany the rains, with gusts reaching as high as 50 mph in some parts of the Bay Area.
Wind advisories were issued for the East Bay hills and North Bay mountains.
“It’s going to be windier,” Strudley said.
“The last one had some good winds; this one might be a little bit windier, especially during the duration of the storm,” he said.
The region is expected to be dry by Tuesday although thick morning fog is likely, the weather service said.
