After a week of sunny skies and mild weather, the Bay Area woke up Sunday to another gorgeous day, but forecasters say this dry stretch won’t last much longer. High clouds are painting colorful sunrises and sunsets while temperatures gradually cool down, and there’s growing confidence that rain could return before January ends.
It’s been quite a turnaround from the start of the month. The region got hammered by back-to-back atmospheric river storms around New Year’s, with record-breaking king tides and flooding across Marin, Sonoma, and coastal areas. Roads were underwater, campgrounds were evacuated, and the Bay Area picked up 1.5 to 2 inches of rain—with mountain areas seeing 3 to 4 inches—through early January. But since those storms cleared out around January 8th, a dome of high pressure has settled in and basically shut off the rain faucet.
According to the National Weather Service, that high-pressure system peaked last Wednesday at near-record strength but is now slowly weakening. By Friday, atmospheric conditions should return to normal for this time of year. What that means for regular folks: after about a week of unusually warm afternoons and chilly mornings, temperatures are gradually settling back to typical January patterns.
How Warm Has It Really Been?
The weather pattern that’s been keeping things pleasant isn’t your typical January setup. Meteorologists call it a “ridge of high pressure”—essentially a dome of calm, sinking air that blocks storms and keeps skies clear. This particular ridge has been unusually strong and stubborn. As Hoodline reported earlier this week, both daytime highs and overnight lows have been running about 10 degrees warmer than normal for mid-January…