Trade your sunglasses for rain boots, at least for the next two days.
Light rainstorms—and possibly even a little thunderstorm—are forecasted Thursday and Friday in Petaluma, but the wet weather is expected to clear up by the weekend and the chilly, dry, sunny winter days should return, the National Weather Service reported.
Read the complete forecast here.
After torrential downpours in November and December, the beginning of 2013 has been one of the driest on record in Northern California. It has stayed dry because a strong, high-pressure bubble over Northern California and the Pacific has rebuffed storms for the past month, a National Weather Service meteorologist told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The dry spell isn't severe enough to cause worry yet—the Sierra snowpack is still remarkably close to average—but forecasters also said it doesn't look like that high-pressure system is ready to move on yet.
Rainfall Totals (in inches) Weather Station Location Oct. 2012 Nov. 2012 Dec. 2012 Jan. 2013 Weather Year-to-Date Percent Average(to date) Fairfield 1.48 5.75 (missing) 0.60 (missing) n/a Mount Hamilton 0.48 5.22 (missing) 1.15 (missing) n/a Napa 1.51 4.80 7.87 0.34 14.52 101% SFO 0.70 4.50 7.11 (missing (missing) n/a San Francisco 1.47 4.50 7.11 0.49 13.57 109% Santa Cruz 0.53 5.56 7.95 0.90 14.94 92% Watsonville 0.41 2.98 7.89 0.72 12.00 98%
Rain in Petaluma is expected Thursday afternoon, with possible scattered showers and thunderstorms on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
