The transition from a rainy week in the Bay Area to a sunny weekend moved gradually on Friday, with the precipitation from the final of three storms taking its time moving out of area.
Occasional pockets of rain still fell before sunrise in areas of the region and was expected to keep doing so off-and-on until at least the afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. But once the final drop falls, the curtain will open to ever-brightening skies.
“It’s just the pace of the storm,” NWS meteorologist Roger Gass said Friday. “There is still moisture aloft. Once the dryer air comes in from the north, we’re going to go dry.”
The sunny weather is expected to last through the weekend and into early next week. Temperatures will be cold — the highs aren’t expected to climb out of the mid-50s, and the lows will in the 30s and possibly below 32 degrees in some areas, the weather service said.
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The agency issued a frost advisory and freeze warning for Saturday morning that runs from Cloverdale to south of Big Sur and as far east as Concord and Livermore. Gass said more may be likely as the cold snap continues.
Still, the cold weather also will be quite calm. Winds that gusted as high as 50 mph in the upper elevations on Thursday and higher than 65 mph on Tuesday had calmed to barely a ripple Friday morning, and flood advisories that dotted the region expired.
The dry weather also is expected to provide a small bit of relief for soil that is fully saturated and prone to run-off. Such conditions contribute to flooding and can bring down trees in rainy weather.
The last of the steady rain fell with moderate pace on Thursday. At 7 a.m., the 24-hour rainfall totals showed that nearly 3 inches fell on Mt. Umunhum and about 2 2/3 inches fell on Ben Lomond in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Oakland and San Francisco each received about two-thirds of an inch, and San Jose received about four-tenths of an inch. Mount Diablo received 1.1 inches, Richmond a half-inch and Concord had just five-hundredths of an inch.
As for the next storm, the weather service said it is forming over the ocean and that its characteristics should come into focus as it moves closer to land. Gass said the soonest rain is likely to fall again is Wednesday.