Potent Spring Storm Hits Northern California

Forecasters predict a strong spring storm that will pass through Northern California has the potential to flood a river and soak Bay Area cities.

Showers in the Bay Area will intensify Thursday night and some smaller trees could fall, said Jan Null, with Golden Gate Weather Services.

The storm is expected to last through Saturday, before heading out to the Great Plains. But a similar storm is forecast to arrive next Wednesday.

San Francisco and Oakland can expect 1 to 1.5 inches of rain, which Monterey National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson said was normal for this time of year.

Gale warnings and small craft advisories will go into effect for coastal waters on Thursday afternoon.

Sierra Braces for a Strong Storm
Reno National Weather Service forecasters said the storm could potentially flood the Feather River at Portola in the Sierra. It will be the biggest storm the Sierra has seen in April in a decade, said forecaster Scott McGuire.

Storm warnings posted from the Oregon border down through the northern Sierra Nevada call for about 6 inches to 12 inches of snow at elevations above 4,500 feet, and between 2 feet and 4 feet at elevations above 6,000 feet.

Electronic monitors last week showed the Sierra’s snowpack was at 164 percent of normal. It was the most dense springtime snowpack since 2011, a year followed by five years of harsh drought.

A Record-breaking Year of Rain
The Reno weather service office said this was all the result of another so-called atmospheric river, a plume of moisture stretching out into the Pacific.

This series of "Pineapple express" storms has brought California an average of 27.81 inches of precipitation from October to February, making this the wettest year on record since 1895, according to data released Wednesday by the National Centers for Environmental Information, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

While the record-breaking rain in recent months has put a major dent in more than five years of drought in the state, it also led rivers and creeks to break their banks and wreaked havoc on the state’s infrastructure.

Lisa Pickoff-White and the Associated Press contributed to this report.