Wind, rain in Sonoma County weekend forecast

A new storm is bearing down on Northern California, prompting warnings for holiday motorists traversing the rural North Bay and for those headed for the snow-covered slopes of the Sierra Nevada.

Sunday night’s storm could bring enough rain to once more send the Russian River over its banks by Tuesday afternoon, though the impact is expected to be minor and short-lived. Low-lying country roads once more may flood, while travelers making a Presidents Day weekend trip to the snow may find conditions in the mountains “downright hazardous,” said Steve Anderson, a forecaster in Monterey with the National Weather Service.

“If you go up there,” he said, “plan to spend an extra day or two.”

The warnings came as Friday’s storm pushed Santa Rosa’s seasonal rainfall total over 4 feet.

As of 4 p.m. Friday, the city received 0.65 of an inch of rain in 24 hours. That pushed the total since Oct. 1 to 48.06 inches. The last time Santa Rosa received more rain was in 2005/2006, when it tallied 49.79 inches for an entire season, one that extended more than six additional months to Sept. 30.

Anderson said that with the rain expected to fall over the next three days, “I think we’ll surpass that easy.”

Santa Rosa is expected to receive 2 to 4 inches of rain between Sunday night and Monday. The rain in the region’s hills may exceed 4 inches.

Today’s forecast calls for cloudy skies and residual showers. Rain will return Sunday morning, with most falling Sunday night and Monday.

On Friday, winds toppled trees and power lines, causing scattered power failures.

In Sonoma, a city crew pulled down a 65-foot Western catalpa tree that was in danger of falling over on the north side of the town plaza, said Dean Merrill, the city’s street supervisor.

Along the Russian River, rising waters are expected to reach 32.8 feet in Guerneville by Tuesday afternoon, according to a forecast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That would be slightly above the 32-foot flood stage, but the river is expected to fall back within its banks Tuesday night.

The CHP on Friday night reported the closure of Highway 20 in Colusa County because of flooding. The highway, a major route for North Coast travelers passing east through Lake County, is closed from 5.5 miles east of the Highway 16 nearly all the way to the town of Williams.

In the Sierra, heavy snow was forecast through the weekend. In the highest elevations, nearly 2 feet of snow is expected Friday and overnight. Even more snow is likely to fall as the most severe storm hits Monday, said Bob Benjamin of the National Weather Service.

Interstates 80 and 50 were open Friday, but officials suggested they could be closed with little notice because of snow conditions and landslides.

For road updates, he advised travelers to check the Facebook pages for Caltrans District 3 and the Placerville CHP.

This story includes information from the Sonoma Index-Tribune.