After days of rain and a record-high tide in Richmond Saturday, residents should expect a break from the precipitation Tuesday, weather experts said Monday.
While it may seem like the ground couldn’t get any soggier, a meteorologist said it’s not quite saturated enough to cause major landslides.
“I wouldn’t say that you can’t completely rule out a larger landslide, but we’re not quite to that saturation level,” said Roger Gass, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Monterey office.
Nearly every waterfront city on the San Francisco and San Pablo bays was under a coastal flood advisory until 3 p.m. Monday. A days-long rainy pattern overlapped with a “king tide,” an unofficial term for a once- or twice-yearly phenomenon where the Earth, moon and sun are aligned to generate higher-than-normal tides.
The NWS forecast high tides more than a foot above normal which, combined with the rain, left some roads and paths flooded.
Between noon Sunday and noon Monday, Berkeley and Oakland got about a third of an inch of rain, and Richmond received about a half-inch, according to the NWS. Gass said the recent rainfall was “typical” for the winter months.
The tide heights, by contrast, broke several records around the Bay Area, including in Richmond, where on Saturday the NWS measured the highest tide ever recorded.
While Tuesday is expected to be considerably cloudy, there’s just an 8% chance of rain and temperatures could reach 60 degrees.
