The cold snap that permeated the Bay Area earlier this week and made the rain seem a bit chillier than usual may seem like nothing more than a mild cooldown by the time the weekend dawns, according to the National Weather Service.
The rain will be history, but the cold will carry an extra layer of ouch to it.
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“It’s gonna be really, really cold,” NWS meteorologist Dial Hoang said. “The lows are going to get down to the lower 40s in places like Oakland and San Jose and in some of the interior places it will be in the mid-to-low 30s and maybe the 20s. We won’t get above the low 60s anywhere all weekend, and the temperature may not get higher than the 50s in the some places. So yes, very cold.”
Frost and freeze conditions will be particularly harsh in the North Bay interior valleys, the southern Salinas Valley, in San Benito County and in the Cholame Hills in Monterey County. A freeze warning will be in effect in those areas from midnight to 8 a.m. Saturday, and temperatures there may get as low as 28 degrees, according to the weather service.
Officials reminded people in these areas to take measures to avoid freezing pipes and plants and to protect pets and people.
“We had another cold front coming through overnight (into Friday),” Hoang said. “That’s brought the temperatures down across the region.”
It also marked the end of any rain until Sunday, Hoang said. That part of the forecast is timely; a “supermoon” is expected to appear Friday, according to Space.com. That phenomenon occurs when the moon appears larger and brighter than normal because of the sun’s closer-than-usual position to Earth.
Also expected to be seen is a major meteor shower from Sunday night into Monday. The shower will be active through Dec. 2, according to the site. The meteors travel at speeds of 44 miles per second, according to NASA and “can also result in impressive fireballs producing long, bright and colorful meteor streaks,” Space.com wrote.
Observers are expected to see at least 15 meteors per hour, if not more.
The rain Sunday will follow systems that dropped some rain on the region Monday, a bit less on Wednesday and a couple of isolated cells — a quarter-inch on Mount Diablo; about 15-hundredths of an inch in Dublin, five-hundredths of an inch in Oakland — on Thursday.
Hoang said the time frame for the next rain “would be either very late Sunday or early Monday. We’re not expecting a lot of rain from that system. Maybe a few sprinkles. Maybe one-tenth of an inch.”
That rain would be from yet another system originating in the Gulf of Alaska, Hoang said. But after the Sunday system rolls through and keeps the temperatures chilly through Monday, the weather pattern through the Alaskan gulf is expected to change and with it, the Bay Area temperatures.
“After Monday, we really should start to warm up,” Hoang said. “It should be noticeable.”