Rain sweeps through North Bay (w/video)

A mellow storm passed through the North Bay early Wednesday, bringing a half-inch of rain and more, with similar amounts due by week’s end from the combined rainfall of two more storms, according to the National Weather Service.

The final, Friday-Saturday storm looks the most promising, with weather models showing its focus could be the North Bay, said Larry Smith, weather service meteorologist.

The trio of storms in almost as many days aren’t packing a huge amount of power. “Well- behaved” was how Smith described the first round Wednesday.

That storm was tapering off Wednesday evening, but some rainfall and showers remained throughout the Bay Area as the storm headed south. “Doppler radar is pretty lit up, so there’s definitely some precipitation going on,” Smith said, referring to the weather radar that tracks rainfall.

The first significant rainfall after a dry spell brought a bit of chaos to Sonoma County roads and highways. The CHP reported 15 to 20 weather-related crashes, though none were major. Sonoma County sheriff’s Sgt. Cecile Focha reminded motorists to drive with caution.

“We don’t want to put our coroner to work on a bunch of car crashes,” she said.

Wednesday’s rainfall reports included 0.36 inches of rain in Santa Rosa and 0.50 inches for Sebastopol. Cazadero’s 24-hour rainfall total as of 4 p.m. Wednesday was 1.32 inches.

Storm No. 2 is due Thursday and could be gone by Friday afternoon. Right behind it is storm No. 3.

“Another storm is diving down from the north and should start to bring some precipitation” late Friday night into Saturday, Smith said. “There’s a pretty good jet (stream) backing it up also. That should enhance the precipitation.”

Temperatures are due to remain cool, with highs in the Santa Rosa area in the low to mid-60s. Mornings shouldn’t be as cold as earlier this week due to the cloud cover and will range in the 40s.

Santa Rosa so far this year has seen about triple the amount of rainfall compared to last year at this time, but the amount is still well below the average rainfall by this point in November.