The latest cold-weather storm of the winter — err, spring — is likely to take a bit more time to arrive in the East Bay, South Bay and Peninsula than the National Weather Service originally anticipated. So it is that rain may begin to fall just as the Saturday morning coffee begins to brew. “The pace of the storm really appears that it’s going to get to the central part of the region right at sunrise, maybe a little bit after,” NWS meteorologist Dalton Behringer said Friday morning. “It’ll start overnight in the North Bay.” Related Articles Weather | Rainy season isn’t quite over yet as Bay ..read more

The onset of May generally signals the beginning of a weather pattern transition in the Bay Area from one that lends toward wet, cold weather to one that ushers in longer, warmer dry spells. Yet, as National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Mehle put it Thursday morning, “We’re not there, yet.” Related Articles Weather | Highway 1 repair work near Big Sur hampered by winds Weather | Marine Cloud Brightening project aims to combat global warming Weather | Big Sur Highway 1 repair work hitting its stride Weather | As unofficial start of summer creeps closer, Bay Area weather is strictly c ..read more

SALINAS – Caltrans’ work at one of its roadway projects on Highway 1 continues to make progress and evolve after giving visitors a path to Big Sur through the Rocky Creek slip-out repair site that started this week, but excessive winds are a concern and hampering some of the repair work. On Monday, Caltrans opened its twice-daily convoys, previously only available to locals and essential workers, to also include all members of the traveling public. But travelers must be aware that after the last convoy, they will need to have overnight reservations in the Big Sur area. Travelers to Big Sur sho ..read more

By Mary Gilbert | CNN Meteorologist It may be spring, but it’s not too soon to look ahead to summer weather, especially when El Niño – a player in last year’s especially brutal summer – is rapidly weakening and will all but vanish by the time the season kicks into gear. El Niño’s disappearing act doesn’t mean relief from the heat. Not when the world is heating up due to human-driven climate change. In fact, forecasters think it could mean the opposite. What this summer’s weather could look like Above-average temperatures are forecast over nearly every square mile of the Lower 48.(CNN Weather v ..read more

Alex Wigglesworth | Los Angeles Times (TNS) As a massive heat dome lingered over the Pacific Northwest three years ago, swaths of North America simmered— and then burned. Wildfires charred more than 18.5 million acres across the continent, with the most land burned in Canada and California. A new study has revealed the extent to which human-caused climate change intensified the extraordinary event, with researchers theorizing the heat dome was 34% larger and lasted nearly 60% longer than it would have in the absence of global warming. The heat dome, in turn ..read more

For the second year in a row, snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains has been higher than normal. This follows three years where low snowpack contributed to drought conditions in the state. NASA images of Sierra snowpack. From left to right: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024. (NASA Earth Observatory images by Wanmei Liang, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.)  Snowpack throughout the Sierra range was slightly higher than average, 110 percent, on April 1, 2024, according to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). NASA took a current satellite image of the mountain ran ..read more

Atmospheric river storms are like punches in a boxing match. A flurry of weak ones are OK. But it’s best to avoid the big knockout blows. That’s exactly what happened in California this winter. Scientists say that from Oct. 1 to April 1, the state actually received more atmospheric rivers, the famous moisture-laden meteorological events that are critical to the water supply, than it did last year — 44 this winter compared to 31 last winter. But the intensity made all the difference. Statewide, California had just 2 strong atmospheric rivers this winter, compared with 7 last year. Many of the b ..read more

By SUMAN NAISHADHAM | Associated Press Carpets of yellow, orange and gold flowers are beginning to cover Southern California’s vast deserts, the Bay Area’s dramatic bluffs and even near Los Angeles International Airport. But do they add up to a “superbloom”? There is no single definition of the event, but so far this year’s blooms haven’t been as vibrant or abundant as those that took over swaths of California last spring following drought-busting rains. This year, too, the state received ample winter rains. After especially wet winters, bursts of color may appear in the spring, drawing droves ..read more

By Nadia Lopez | Bloomberg California’s already strained property insurance market is facing a new challenge as two more insurers, Tokio Marine America Insurance Co. and Trans Pacific Insurance Co., plan to withdraw from the wildfire-prone state entirely starting in July. The two companies, units of Japan-based Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., disclosed their plans in filings submitted to the California Department of Insurance. They said the decision will affect 12,556 policies with premiums of $11.3 million. “Given the small segment of personal lines business we write and escalating costs, we cann ..read more

BIG SUR — Just in time for summer travel, Caltrans will spend nearly $27 million to fix a section of Highway 1 in Big Sur after part of the road crumbled and fell into the ocean last month, agency officials said. Caltrans anticipates completing the initial repair work to stabilize the edge of the scenic and precarious ribbon of highway south of the Rocky Creek Bridge by Memorial Day, May 27. “We know how important Highway 1 is to the regional economy, especially during the summer, so we are working to reopen the roadway as quickly and safely as possible while at the same time making it more re ..read more