For a few days, Bay Area can chill without rain

Bay Area residents looking for a break from the recent rain can plan on seeing more and more blue in the sky Thursday and through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

They’ll feel it, too.

“It hasn’t been as cold as it could’ve been recently, because of the cloud cover,” weather service meteorologist Jeff Lorber said Wednesday afternoon, noting the winter weather is about to become a bit nippier than normal. “Now, that cover is gonna move out, and you’re going to see the temperatures stay below normal.”

That pattern figures to stay in place at least through the weekend, Lorber said, with only minimal relief from the cool air coming when another storm system descends from the Gulf of Alaska. The models at this point show that storm is expected to arrive sometime Monday, he said.

“We’re going to be below normal in temperatures at least through next week,” Lorber said. “We’re talking 5-6 degrees below normal during the day and maybe a degree or two more at night. You’ll see low 50s during the daytime and upper 30s at night.”

The rain showers that have persisted for more than a week began to dissipate Wednesday, but they left the Bay Area soaked.

As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, 7-day precipitation totals included 6.46 inches at Mill Valley at Mount Tamalpais; 6:22 inches at Ben Lomond in Santa Cruz County; 5.68 inches at Mount Diablo; 3.14 inches in Oakland; 2.71 inches at the Hayward Airport; 2.23 inches in Redwood City; and 2.08 inches in San Jose.

The snow that has dumped for days on the Sierra Nevada also eased up. The snow level had gone back up to 4,000 feet — from a low of 500 feet earlier in the week — according to the weather service.

Interstate 80 from Colfax to the Nevada state line re-opened Tuesday night. Chain controls still were in effect Wednesday.

How much snow has there been?

The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab reported on Wednesday morning a new December record of 210 inches of snow, shattering the previous record of 179 inches set in December 1970, and comprising 70% of the area’s average annual snowfall.

As of Tuesday morning, Northstar California Resort had received around 132 inches of snow during the weeklong storms while Homewood and Sugar Bowl got 128 and 121 inches respectively, according to the weather service. Palisades Tahoe received 113 inches of snow while Kirkwood and Bear Valley got 79 inches and Heavenly received 80 inches in that same time period.

The series of storms came from a low-pressure system that originated in British Columbia and moved south off the coast of the Oregon-California border, according to the weather service.

“As the moisture and energy moved through, we’re reaping the benefits,” NWS forecaster Eleanor Dhuyvetter said. “It’s been gradual so we haven’t seen that many impacts and it’s been much-needed rain.”

After a mostly dry November and two dry winters in a row, the string of storms has been much-needed in California, which has been ravaged by “extreme drought.”

This year’s water year, which began on Oct. 1, has been marked by more rain than in recent years. As of Tuesday, San Jose had received 6.37 inches of rain since Oct. 1, compared to 0.92 of an inch of rain the city got in that same time period last year, according to the weather service. San Jose’s rainfall total is 162 percent of historic averages from 1991 to 2020, while the city was 23 percent of normal this time last year.