BIG RAIN, WIND ARRIVES IN THE NORTH BAY

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The biggest storm of the season is poised to strike the North Bay beginning Friday night with heavy rain and high winds.

The impressive, rapidly intensifying storm system is spinning up off the California-Oregon border.

The storm will draw in a big fetch of moisture from the southwest and direct it straight into California over the next 24 hours.

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The arrival of the heaviest rain will come early Saturday into midday. There may be some rises of small streams and minor street flooding. The storm landfall on the Sonoma and Marin coasts rates as a weak to moderate atmospheric river event.

By Saturday morning into Saturday afternoon a strong jet stream will be over Central California, which is expected to enhance rainfall rates, especially on coastal hills where up to 6 inches of rain may fall.

This will also give us high winds, generally 15-25 mph from the south, but gusting during the day Saturday as high as 40 mph at times.

Here’s a look at where the storm will likely be at around 7AM Saturday.

Sometime between 6AM and 12PM Saturday we are likely to get our heaviest rain as the atmospheric river is directly pointed at the North Bay, before sliding south.

Most models have the North Bay picking up 2-3 inches of rain, the bulk of it falling Saturday. The hills have the potential to pick-up considerably more.

Additional showers will be over the area Sunday before the storm gradually moves south and east. This is the WPC blended outlook for rain by Tuesday, averaging all of the major forecasts.

As you can see in this high resolution view, places in the North Bay hills like Cazadero and Venado have the potential to top 5 inches of rain by Monday.

It’s not a good idea to travel to the Sierra over the next 2-3 days, as the storm will drop up to 6 feet of new snow amid blizzard conditions at times.

Late in the coming week another storm has the potential to bring addition rain to our area. But forecast models are split on the track of the closed low pressure system. We’ll keep you up-to-date as the forecast comes into focus.