To those looking for a fresh start in 2025, avoid getting cold feet before the new year, as National Weather Service meteorologists forecast frigid mornings to continue on the last day of 2024.
Braydon Murdock, an NWS meteorologist for the San Francisco Bay Area, said that the most significant weather pattern that many will see is cold morning temperatures. A cold front came in on Sunday and led to frost and freeze advisories being issued for Monday and Tuesday mornings. In fact, Monday night into Tuesday morning was forecast to be one of the coldest nights of the year.
“Compared to last week, there’s not a whole lot of aggressive weather, it’s mostly just cold and then things calm down into the week,” Murdock said.
Murdock forecast that temperatures on Monday night into Tuesday morning in areas of the interior Bay Area could reach lows in the 30s. Areas further inland, like the valleys in the East Bay, Sonoma County and Monterey County, could see their lows reach the upper 20s.
The North Bay cities of Santa Rosa, Napa and San Rafael and Monterey and San Benito counties were listed as having a major risk from weather hazards due to the cold on Tuesday morning. There was a moderate risk due to the cold on the peninsula, East Bay, South Bay and Santa Cruz County.
Murdock also forecast that it would be “another chilly night” going into Wednesday. Monterey County was was forecast to hit lows in the 20s, while the rest of the region would reach lows in the 30s and 40s. However, the bayside and coastal areas were forecast to be colder.
Murdock said temperatures were expected to improve later in the week and there would be more cloud cover.
Some rain was forecast later in the week, but it is mostly expected to be confined to the North Bay; Murdock said there might be a drizzle of rain from Wednesday into Thursday but about half an inch of precipitation could fall over the same area on Friday and Saturday.
Drizzle throughout the Bay Area on was forecast for Friday afternoon, but it would only add up to about one-tenth of an inch in San Francisco and less in areas south of there.
The Sierra Nevada was also forecast to be pretty dry in the beginning of the week in terms of snowmelt, said Idamis Shoemaker, an NWS meteorologist for the Sacramento area. The next chance of snow would be on Friday into early Saturday morning, but it could total less than two inches packed above 6,000 feet. She said this could possibly affect Interstate 80 and Highway 50 around Donner Pass and Echo Summit.
Mark Deutschendors, an NWS meteorologist for areas around Reno, Nevada, said that there was no snow forecast from Monday to Thursday in Lake Tahoe. However, an early estimate predicted between 2-5 inches of snow at 7,000 feet on Friday.
Murdock said that there are chances of rain next week, too, but they were “probably going to be more miss than hit,” due to disagreements in the weather prediction models.