Rain arrives in Sonoma County, but high winds stay away

A day of steady rainfall brought Sonoma County’s wettest weather in months but no major problems as only minor slides and some fallen trees were reported by late Monday as steady precipitation continued overnight.

More than 2 inches had fallen at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport and up to 11/2 additional inches were expected by this morning, according to the National Weather Service. Similar amounts were reported across the county’s cities, and emergency dispatchers said slides in the lower Russian River and Sonoma Coast blocked roads only temporarily.

Hillsides charred by the October wildfires appeared to have held intact.

“So far so good,” said Paul Lowenthal, Santa Rosa’s assistant fire marshal, Monday night. “We were kind of anticipating that this was going to be our first real significant test of all the measures that have been put in place over the last several months in anticipation, because we’ve had a lot of dry weather and rain here and there, but no storms that have tested our infrastructure.

“We’ve had steady rainfall, but definitely not the significant amounts of rain that we initially anticipated (Monday) afternoon.”

Downtown Santa Rosa had seen 1.95 inches of rain as of Monday, while Petaluma got 1.34 inches and Sonoma about 1.4 inches, according to Weather Service forecaster Will Pi.

The remote outpost of Venado in the hills west of Healdsburg, a typically rain-soaked area, received nearly 4.4 inches as of Monday night.

Winds were not a major issue, with gusts of up to 30 miles per hour in the hills, Pi said. Weather was expected to get “a little breezy” but not extreme overnight, he said.

A Pacific system pushing inland brought the rain, and a flash flood watch remained in effect until 6 a.m. today. Rain was forecast to taper off this morning. Wednesday’s highs are predicted to reach 60 degrees under partly sunny skies.

In the Cazadero area, a tree that fell into some power lines Monday afternoon caused an outage affecting nearly 50 customers, but a PG&E spokesman anticipated the issue would be resolved by this morning and said there were no other significant outages in the area.

In a typical January, Santa Rosa sees just under 6 inches of rain. Monday’s storm put the month on firm footing toward average totals and marked a distinct change from December, which was one of the driest on record - less than an inch of rain in Santa Rosa.

So far this season the city has had about 7 inches of rain, less than half the average amount.

The CHP Monday reported a series of minor injury crashes but no major events because of the rain.

“Nothing huge,” said CHP Officer Jon Sloat.

“We are starting to see the creeks and drainage come up. I just drove Barnes Road - notorious for flooding - and that water is starting to get up onto the roadway. If it continues with any strength into the evening, we’ll see some road flooding for sure.”

Santa Rosa officials and the CHP will be monitoring burn and new construction areas for signs of flooding or mudslides.

December’s lengthy dry spell helped crews prep scorched hillsides and vulnerable creek areas for future rainfall, including protecting streams from runoff and heading off mudslides.

City staff early Monday began patrolling areas watching for signs of slippage and runoff. Lowenthal asked the public to help crews stay ahead of issues.

“We’re encouraging people if they do see debris flows, mudslides, major flooding, please call 911,” he said.

Strong winds also could topple dead and dying trees in the burn footprint, possibly hitting power lines, and he asked people to call in such sightings.

The season’s first significant rain coincides with a return to school for thousands of students following the winter holiday break, adding to the day’s traffic.

Sloat reiterated warnings for drivers - many who don’t seem to remember standard driving tips when the weather turns.

Sloat advised drivers to slow down as the wet weather continues.

“The posted speed limit is likely not the safe one in rain like this,” he said.

A slight chance for rain remains Wednesday, but no further precipitation is likely until next Monday, according to Pi.

“This is not a really big storm, as it turns out,” Pi said. “(But) it’s super wet. It’s actually just right so far.”

The storm wasn’t slated to bring much snow to the Sierra, with predictions of 2-4 inches Monday afternoon and as much as 7 inches Monday night into Tuesday, when a few more inches could fall, according to the National Weather Service. The snow level Tuesday was set at 7,500 feet.

Last week’s official check of the snowpack near Echo summit, just south of Lake Tahoe, showed meager snow levels of about 3 percent of normal.

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @thejdmorris. You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@rossmannreport.