Wednesday, January 2, 2008

SF Bay Area: rain Rain RAIN RAIN. And wind, too.

This is for all of you bicycle commuters who neglect to check the weather forecast (and you know who you are) -- three storms systems are barreling down from Alaska with two to four inches of rain forecast in Santa Clara valley and up the Peninsula into San Francisco beginning Thursday at noon. On Friday, 20 to 30 mph winds gusting to 50 mph are expected throughout the Bay Area and coastal areas. Up to ten inches on rain is expected in the Santa Cruz Mountains (where I live) over the weekend, with snow falling as low as 2,500 feet.

bicycling in the rain
As the storms move east over the Sierra Mountains, the snow is expected to fall in crippling volumes. "They could see up to eight to 10 feet [of snow] by Sunday," Weather Service Meteorologist Steve Anderson. "It's going to be a major winter storm with white-out, blizzard conditions, winds up to 100 miles per hour on the peaks and around 50 miles per hour down on Interstate 80," he says.

Although big swells are expected through the storms in Santa Cruz, surf conditions will be too choppy for it to be any fun.

Before you break out the bikes for your commute to work on Thursday morning, break out your rain gear.

Photo: "Cycling through the rain" by Annemiek van der Kuil. With expected high winds, an umbrella is not recommended this week.

4 comments:

  1. Yeah yeah yeah, I know....

    It rains just hard enough to get wet, and it's usually a cold rain around here so you're miserable if you're not in rain gear. I've been out on days with rain forecast for the afternoon, and in the morning all the bike commuters are in their normal bike commute clothes like nice slacks, dress shirts, and good shoes. In the evening I see them covered up in plastic trash bags with holes for their heads and arms.

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  2. I hope it has enough momentum to drop a bunch on Minnesota. I would love some more snow.

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  3. There's no such thing as bad weather, just poor choice in clothes.

    Enjoy the misting...

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