Bay Forecast: Weird Weekend Weather Ahead

Its already a gloomy start to the weekend with mostly cloudy skies, breezy conditions and eventually plan on some rain dropping into the picture by the end of the day. A very cold weather system for this time of year will begin pushing into the Bay Area later tonight bringing some Winter-like air higher up into the region on Sunday. This will bring periods of rain overnight into early Sunday followed by scattered showers and likely a few thunderstorms during the day Sunday. The freezing/snow level will move from 5,000 ft. Saturday down to near 3,500 ft by Sunday evening. Though most of the moisture will have moved on by Sunday night its not out of the question our higher Bay Area peaks like Mt. Hamilton and Mt. Diablo will get a dusting of snow by the end of the weekend! More interesting will be the need to watch those thunderstorms – as some may turn severe if we get the right set of ingredients coming together on Sunday. That would include: cold, dry air higher up, enough moisture and warming below (brought on by midday sunny breaks) and wind shear or turning of the winds from the surface into the mid-levels of the atmosphere. We’ll keep an eye on those stronger storms for you on Sunday with the radar here on this website plus updates on air as warranted. Things will stay showery and rainy at times especially later Monday into Tuesday – then by midweek we’ll see high pressure return for a drying and warming trend for the second half of the week. – Rob Mayeda