Persistent 'pineapple express' to bring heavy rain, flooding to Bay Area |
FILE - A view of a historic streetcar near Embarcadero Plaza during rainy weather in San Francisco on Dec. 19, 2025.
Now’s the time to tie down any holiday decorations and clean out your storm gutters: Back-to-back storm systems are about to descend on the Bay Area, delivering a month’s worth of rain in a single week.
A “true pineapple express,” or strong atmospheric river pulling moisture from Hawaii and the tropical Pacific, is driving the first prolonged rain event, Cynthia Palmer, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office, told SFGATE. As of Sunday morning, the focus of that rain band was stationed over Mendocino County and producing showers across the North Bay, but is expected to shift south later this afternoon and into the evening.
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“As it does, we’ll see periods of moderate to heavy rain develop,” Palmer said.
From there, the “wobbly system” is expected to slowly drift south to Monterey before lifting back north over the Bay Area again on Monday, Palmer said. It’s forecast to produce up to 2 to 3 inches of rain in lower terrain and up to 5 to 6 inches of rain in the mountains, with the exception of rain-shadowed areas like San Jose, which are only projected to see up to an........