April Storm Entrance Brings Showers, Allergy Reduction To San Francisco Bay Space – CBS San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – While it won’t be a drought buster, an April storm front rolling into Northern California early Sunday will bring much-needed showers and allergy sufferers to the San Francisco Bay Area and over a meter of snow into the San Francisco cast higher elevations in the Sierra.
Forecasters say it would take multiple storms the size of the weekend weather front to break the grip that a severe to extreme drought has in the Bay Area.
Extreme drought conditions have affected parts of seven counties in the Bay Area, according to the US Drought Monitor. Downtown San Francisco, according to the National Weather Service, is currently experiencing the fourth driest rainy season with just 8.72 rainfall.
ALSO READ: KPIX 5 California Drought 2021 Special Section
Showers start in earnest at 6 a.m. on Sunday, spread quickly in the Bay Area, then move out in the late afternoon.
“The probability of rain will initially develop in the North Bay on Saturday evening and then spread south over the rest of the Bay Area on Sunday,” said the forecasters of the weather service. “At this point it doesn’t seem like a major storm by any means, but much-needed rainfall will be possible.”
KPIX 5 meteorologist Darren Peck said the showers would clear the skies in the Bay Area of pollen and bring several days of relief to allergy sufferers, who were miserable during the dry spell until the last rainstorms in mid-March.
When the rain stops, much of the area will receive at least a quarter of an inch of rainfall. The effects of the storm will be much stronger in the sierra.
“For the Tahoe Basin and Alpine Counties, 2 to 6 inches were possible at the Lake Tahoe level by 6 to 12 inches over 7,000 feet,” weather forecasters said. “12 to 18 inches are possible along the Sierra Crest. Winds could blow up to 45 miles per hour in the lower elevations with gusts up to 80 miles per hour along the Sierra Crest. “
A winter weather report should go into effect on Sunday at 3 a.m. and run through Monday at 5 a.m. The snowstorm conditions help to replenish the rapidly disappearing snow cover.
Dan McEvoy, a researcher at the Western Region Climate Center, told KPIX 5 that he was shocked to discover that in several locations in Sierra, snowpack water content had seen the largest decrease in the first three weeks of April.
At several important reporting points in the Sierra, the water content stored in the snowpack has lost almost half of the water content present at the beginning of the month.
That was based on an April 1 survey by the California Department of Water Resources that found that snow cover in the central Sierra was 63% of the average, or 16.5 inches.
Usually the snow cover is highest on April 1st. Since that date, however, the snowpack in the central Sierra has dropped significantly to just 37% of the average.
McEvoy said while many factors played a role in such an alarming rate of loss, the main culprit is the intense warmth California experienced over the past month. Much of Northern California had temperatures 4 degrees above average during the reporting period.
