Late-season storm brings rain, wind to Merced County

A late-season storm moving through California brought showers to Merced County on Friday and was expected to stir up windy conditions into Saturday before giving way to some sunshine, according to the National Weather Service.

The showers that fell over the Merced area Friday afternoon were associated with a low-pressure system that moved across Northern California, said Cindy Bean, meteorologist with the weather service in Hanford.

“We’re catching the southern end of it as it drops down toward Nevada,” Bean told the Sun-Star by phone on Friday.

The system caused winds to pick up, with speeds of 15 mph to 20 mph in the Valley and stronger forces on the west side toward Pacheco Pass, Bean said. The wind gusts stirred up a bit of dust, particularly in the Merced area, she said.

Precipitation was expected to give way to partly cloudy skies on Saturday morning, followed by sunshine in the afternoon. A new system was expected to move in on Sunday, bringing more cloud cover and a chance of rain in the mountains by Sunday afternoon. The next chance of rain for the Valley was expected sometime midweek, Bean said.

While April has seen temperatures climb into the 80s, the burst of showers was nothing out of the ordinary, she said.

“Spring is a very changeable time for weather,” Bean said. “It’s not uncommon for us to see isolated showers come through.”

The system brought measurable rainfall to the Bay Area on Friday as it moved toward the mountains. Forecasters said up to 4 inches of snow could accumulate along Interstate 80 and Highway 50, while higher peaks could get 7 inches to 11 inches and Lassen could expect up to 16 inches.

Snow was predicted to taper off by late evening.

The gusty winds were forecast for the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and across Southern California’s mountains and deserts, including Indio, where thousands of people were gathering for the second weekend of the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

The onshore flow brought a cool down to the southwestern portion of the state after days of unseasonably high temperatures, some ranging into the 90s.

While the north has benefited from spring storms, the south largely missed the significant rainfall that it was hoped the El Niño ocean-warming phenomenon would deliver. This season, downtown Los Angeles has recorded only 6.83 inches of rain since Oct. 1, less than half the normal 14.09 inches to date. San Francisco, meanwhile, is above normal with 22.26 inches since Oct. 1. Normal is 22.19 to date.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Late-season storm brings rain, wind to Merced County."