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An atmospheric river storm that has dumped rain on the North Bay since earlier this week slowly moved across the rest of the Bay Area on Friday, causing flooding in San Francisco, the Peninsula and East Bay, according to the National Weather Service.
Heavy rainfall Friday afternoon prompted the weather service to issue flash flood warnings for San Francisco, northwest San Mateo County and parts of the East Bay including Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond, and the storm will head further south as the day goes on, said Brayden Murdock, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
“The rain band is moving slowly but it is going to focus more on the South Bay as we move to sunset,” Murdock said, adding that it should move out of the region by Saturday morning.
The wet weather is being accompanied by winds of up to 50 mph with gusts of 60 mph or stronger reported Friday at higher elevations in Marin County and the East Bay, Murdock said. The weather service issued a wind advisory for the Bay Area that is in effect through 10 p.m. Friday.
Because of the dangerous conditions, people in the region are advised to avoid unnecessary travel Friday evening and overnight, and if driving, to never go through a flooded roadway.
The atmospheric river brought some serious rainfall totals in the North Bay since arriving late Tuesday into Wednesday. So far this week, Venado in northern Sonoma County has had the most rainfall in the region at 22 inches, but urban areas like downtown Santa Rosa also have had more than 13 inches, Murdock said.
“Certain areas are still taking time to drain out,” he said, including the area of the Russian River near Guerneville where a flood warning is in effect until further notice.
Rainy weather is expected to stay in the Bay Area through the middle of next week in the form of scattered showers, according to the weather service.
