December 14, 2021

A boogie boarder rides the high waves at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, California on December 8, 2020.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Large waves generated by storms and winds in the Pacific Ocean deliver monster waves to the beaches of the San Francisco Bay Area, prompting the National Weather Service to issue the warning, “Never turn your back on the ocean.”

The Weather Service issued a high surf warning through 10 a.m. Wednesday, warning of large breaking waves of up to 20 to 25 feet.

The recommendation applies to the North Bay coastal region, including Point Reyes National Seashore, the San Francisco Peninsula coast, San Francisco, Monterey Bay and the Big Sur coast.

“Breaking waves can sweep people from jetties and docks into cold and dangerous seas where hypothermia or drowning can occur within a minute,” the weather service warned. “Inexperienced swimmers should stay out of the water due to dangerous surf conditions.”

In these conditions, waves are expected to run further up the beach than usual and the breaking surf can catch beach-walkers off guard.

“The swell is coming up behind the storm,” Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Lorber said. “It came about through a lot of activity in the North Pacific. The swell peaked yesterday but will be bolstered by north-westerly winds today which will create dangerous conditions on the beaches.”

Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. Born and raised in the Bay Area, she began her career in the news at UC Berkeley’s Daily Californian newspaper, majoring in English literature. She has been with SFGATE for more than 10 years. You can email her at araff@sfgate.com.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A large decaying cyclone off the west coast caused showers in the San Francisco Bay Area and snowstorms in the Sierra early Wednesday.

The National Weather Service said Northern California is in the midst of an active weather pattern, welcome relief to a region that has suffered severe drought conditions for much of the year.

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“The western US is entering a period of increasingly volatile weather as moisture is predicted to invade land from a large decaying cyclone off the west coast,” the NWS said in its National Outlook. “The rainfall currently moving in Northern California is only a preview of what is to come as another low pressure system near the west coast of Canada is slated to run towards the Pacific Northwest in the next few days.”

The storm door definitely opened during the year.

“A low-pressure conveyor belt is moving into the area – this would mean a pretty wet end for 2021, but it’s a little too far away to care too much,” weather forecasters said. “That’ll be something to check in later this week.”

Forecasters predicted 2.3 inches of rain in San Francisco by December 25.

“If this is confirmed, SF will be back at the top of the 10 wettest water years to date by the end of the week,” they said.

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The coastal mountains in North Bay could see 3-5 inches with up to 6 inches of rain over the higher peaks. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, areas that were already saturated with rain last week could fall another 3-6 inches.

“The good news is that the rain sums are spread over many days, which should mitigate the major effects,” tweeted the weather service. “But be prepared for minor floods, slippery roads and potential debris flows / mudslides.”

In the Sierra, a winter weather warning came into effect on Tuesday at 7 p.m., and it changes to a winter storm warning from Thursday morning to Sunday.

“Heavy snow expected (from Thursday),” warned the weather service in Reno. “Total snow accumulations from 2 to 4 feet up to 4 to 8 feet over 7,000 feet. Wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour, with the ridge gusts likely being over 100 miles per hour. “

For the thousands traveling from the Bay Area to Tahoe over the holiday weekend, it means it will be a slow journey.

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“As soon as the snow starts (Tuesday) evening, traveling through the Sierra up to this weekend will sometimes become more and more difficult or almost impossible,” warned the NWS Reno forecasters. “Be prepared for long delays and rapidly changing territory pass conditions.”

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