Storm brings rain to North Coast on way to Sierra

The second rainstorm in two weeks blew through the North Coast on Monday and once again nearly skirted Sonoma County, unleashing the bulk of its thunder, lightning, hail and rainfall farther south in the Bay Area.

The storm began breaking up Monday afternoon and continued its path east toward the Sierra. In its wake will be sunshine, cool days and near-freezing nights, National Weather Service forecasters said.

“We’ve only really had one other significant storm (this fall),” said Mark Strudley, a weather service hydrologist. “This one was quite a bit less.”

Snow was possible Monday at elevations above 4,000 feet, including Cobb Mountain’s highest ridge at 4,720 feet. But only rain fell below the summit in the Lake County community of Cobb Monday.

“No snow, but it is raining pretty good,” said Roberto Torres, a Texaco gas station clerk who answered the phone Monday morning.

The weather service documented more than 500 lightning flashes and strikes throughout the Bay Area with the bulk near Santa Cruz, although some were reported as far north as Marin County, Strudley said.

The National Weather Service measured a quarter-inch of rainfall in Santa Rosa and 0.8 inches fell in Bodega Bay by Monday afternoon.

Varying amounts were measured by weather watchers across the region who log totals for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. They reported 0.53 inches in Sebastopol and 0.24 inches in Glen Ellen as well as trace amounts in areas of Petaluma, Windsor and Healdsburg.

One week ago, the first significant rainstorm of the season dumped about four-tenths of an inch of rain in Santa Rosa and more than three-quarters of an inch in Napa. It was the first time the region had received that much rain since February, weather service forecasters said.

Tuesday morning, patches of frost could develop in the valleys of the North Coast, with temperatures expected to dip to 33 degrees in St. Helena, 35 degrees in Santa Rosa and 36 degrees in Healdsburg, Strudley said. The daytime temperatures should hover in the mid-to-low 60s.

In the Sierra, chains or snow tires were required on most mountain highways around Lake Tahoe Monday. The forecast called for the storm to dump up to 1½ feet of snow at the highest peaks by Tuesday morning.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.