SF Bay Area gets record-breaking highs, but rain is on the way

The Bay Area sweltered under record-breaking high temperatures over the weekend, but some respite is on the way thanks to the return of the marine layer and a cold front that’s expected to bring light showers early this week, the National Weather Service said Sunday.

On Friday, the weather service’s sites at San Francisco International Airport, downtown Oakland and San Jose tied their previous daily record highs, set at 92 degrees in 1992, 93 in 1973 and 1976, and 95 in 1930 and 1987, respectively, the weather service said. Meanwhile in Central California, the Salinas airport set a new record of 98 degrees, breaking its previous record of 95 degrees in 1972. On Saturday, downtown Oakland experienced a record daily high of 92 degrees, breaking its previous record of 90 set in 1992, according to Sarah McCorkle, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office. 

“If there is a time of year where we’re going to get a heat wave and these conditions, it’s going to be September or October,” McCorkle said. “But any time we do get records, it is kind of a big deal, and I would say this is definitely out of the ordinary, considering many of those records were last set decades ago.” 

However, a cold front coming from the north is expected to bring a chance of rain Monday morning as early as 7 a.m. McCorkle said showers will likely move through quickly and exit the region by 1 or 2 p.m., producing a few hundredths of an inch of rain, most of which is anticipated in the coastal parts of the North Bay. Another round of rainfall could arrive sometime after 11 a.m. on Tuesday, and the Sonoma Mountains down to Mount Tamalpais could get as much as a quarter of an inch of rain.

“The totals have gone down a little bit, unfortunately, but something is better than nothing,” McCorkle said. 

With the rain should come some respite as temperatures are forecast to drop to the upper 60s to low 70s on Monday and Tuesday, though conditions are expected to warm up a bit by the latter half of the week, with forecast highs in the low to upper 70s on Wednesday and mid-70s to low 80s on Thursday.  

“Temperatures are warming back to near-seasonal averages,” McCorkle said, noting the eight-to-14-day outlook from the NWS Climate Prediction Center anticipates an “above-normal chance of above-average temperatures” for mid-to-late October. “But it’s not going to be nearly as intense as what we saw, which is good.” 

A dense fog advisory was issued on Sunday morning for the San Mateo coast, Monterey Bay and northern Salinas Valley as rain showers loom; though the advisory expired by noon, McCorkle advised the public to brace themselves for foggy conditions from Monterey up to Half Moon Bay again tomorrow morning.

“Especially if you’re driving along the coast, you’ll need to watch out for potential sudden changes in visibility, because it can be a little more patchy out there,” McCorkle said. “Make sure you have a lot of space between you and the car in front of you. Luckily, conditions should be improving.”