Bay Area Hit by Heavy Rain, Flooding and Landslides; Thousands Without Power

Updated 4:34 p.m. Thursday

Heavy rain fell across the Bay Area Thursday morning and afternoon as one of the strongest atmospheric river storms of the year hit California, causing highway flooding, power outages and a few landslides.

The National Weather Service says the Santa Cruz Mountains have been hit the hardest, leading to a rare flash flood warning for parts of that region, and a minor flood watch for most of the Bay Area remains until Sunday as the rain recedes. But flood advisories are in effect for most of the Bay Area through 5:30 p.m.

“We’ve heard numerous reports of flooding from the East Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains and the North Bay,” said Rachel Kennedy, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office. “There have been several landslides, but from here on out, we should see rain rates decrease.”

As many as 10,000 PG&E customers are without power, with the majority in the South Bay. One man was killed in an early morning crash west of Santa Cruz, but it was not immediately certain whether the rain was a factor.

Dylan Flynn, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office, said the worst of the storm was expected before 10 a.m., though the atmospheric river will bring moderate to heavy rainfall and wind gusts over 50 mph across the Bay Area through Friday morning.

Between 1 and 3 inches of rain have fallen over the region so far. By the time the storm passes, the North Bay could receive up to 4 inches of rain, the Bay Area up to 3 inches and the Santa Cruz Mountains up to 6 inches.

“It’s pumping tropical moisture through the atmosphere directly at us; It’s like a fire hose,” Flynn said. “In terms of rainfall rates, this is about as heavy as it gets for us for atmospheric rivers. The only good news is that principal impacts only lasted about 12 hours.”

Arrival flights are experiencing delays at San Francisco International Airport by more than an hour because of winds, according to FlightAware. The website reports departures are delayed by nearly an hour and a half. Inbound flights are delayed at the origin by more than two hours due to the wind.

The storm has knocked over trees from Marin to Santa Cruz, including a large tree blocking Skyline Boulevard at Brandy Rock Way in Oakland’s Ridgemont neighborhood, according to an X post by the Oakland Fire Department.

Multiple roads are closed across Sonoma County and on major highways across the region near Oakland, San Mateo, Sunnyvale, Redwood City, Hercules, Vallejo, South San Francisco, San Carlos, Emeryville and Castro Valley, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

“Highways are sort of the canary in the coal mine of where we start to see flooding in the typical places and how flooding is likely to become more widespread from there,” Kennedy said.

Evacuation orders have been lifted across Santa Cruz County. Evacuation orders covered Felton Grove residents living near the San Lorenzo River, as well as residents near Watsonville because of rising water levels in two local creeks: Corralitos and Salsipuedes.

Santa Cruz County posted a video on Facebook showing the Corralitos Creek overflowing with brown, muddy water.

In Soquel, Main Street above Bates Creek was closed due to a tree down with fallen wires, and a landslide and flooding shut down San Jose Road. Some roads were also closed in Watsonville and Interlaken, according to the county.

Israel Murillo, public information officer for the California Highway Patrol office in Santa Cruz, said that as the atmospheric river pounds the region, all available officers are working and gearing up for anything else the storm brings.

“We had a vehicle that got stuck in the middle of the roadway because that individual chose to drive across flooded roads,” he said.

He also said a man was killed around 4:20 a.m. on State Route 1 and Scaroni Road when he was hit by a truck. Murillo said he can’t at this point attribute the death to the rain, but it happened during the storm.

The National Weather Service is paying close attention to any notable rise in streams and major rivers, with the Russian River at Guerneville and the San Lorenzo River having the highest chances of going into flood stage. “San Lorenzo is of particular concern given the rain so far and how flashy that basin is. The river gauge is already reporting a sharp rise,” meteorologists wrote in the weather service’s morning forecast discussion.

Stanford climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh said this atmospheric river mirrors a more significant trend.

“There’s a trend towards the atmospheric river storms that make landfall getting warmer,” he said. “They’ll tend to produce more rainfall than snow, which creates runoff right away.”

All that water is spilling into roadways, which is causing traffic issues, especially in the North Bay, said Sgt. Andrew Barclay, public information officer with the California Highway Patrol Golden Gate Division.

“We’re seeing flooding, we’re seeing debris, and we are seeing people that are driving too fast in those conditions that are losing control and spinning out,” he said.

In San Francisco, the weather service wrote in its most recent flood advisory that “downtown is the most likely place to experience minor flooding” and that on Thursday afternoon, “flooding may transpire, mainly in areas of hilly terrain.”

The weather service forecasts high surf with waves up 45 to feet through Saturday and has issued a flood watch through Saturday evening for the entire Bay Area and Central Coast, except for regions south of Hollister. Heavy rainfall may also continue to cause landslides.

“While the rain and wind grabs everybody’s attention, the most deadly weather we have here in the Bay Area is high surf and people getting swept out to sea,” Flynn said.

Flynn said scattered showers will pick up Thursday afternoon with a chance of thunderstorms, but the rain will be spottier than what happened overnight.

“By Friday afternoon, the sun will make a triumphant return, and the rain will stop,” he said.

Meteorologists expect a weaker storm to move through the region Sunday, with light rain focused on the North Bay. Forecasters wrote that the long-range discussion for the rest of the month is “split, but the majority of solutions point to a much drier second half of February as our roller-coaster rainy season continues.”