Pounding storm due Thursday morning

Wednesday’s steady rain may not feel like much of a wet weather break, but sandwiched between the Monday-Tuesday wind-whipped rainmaker and Thursday’s predicted pounding deluge, apparently it is.

Meteorologists Wednesday morning began issuing weather warnings for what’s coming: 1-2 inches in Santa Rosa, 2-4 inches in the coastal hills and wind gusts of 40-50 mph.

“The timing for Sonoma County – as the sun comes up, 6, 7 a.m. the rain starts,” said Ryan Walbrun, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Unlike Monday night’s storm, which rattled and deluged the region as people slept, Thursday’s punch will play out in daylight with heavier rain in a shorter period of time.

“Things will go downhill in a hurry due to the state of the creeks and the river,” Walbrun said.

The National Weather Service Wednesday morning issued a new round of flash flood watches for all North Bay counties from 4 a.m. Thursday through Thursday evening. Walbrun expected those would be upgraded to flash flood warnings, meaning likely problems. A wind advisory also was issued for the expected strong gusts.

Showers could continue into Friday followed by four or so dry days and sunshine. But that promising forecast comes with a darker note.

“There’s higher than normal confidence that we’ll return to another round of big storms a week from now, heading into President's (Day) weekend,” Walbrun said.

Wednesday’s biggest headache in the region appeared to be Highway 37, still closed near Novato in both directions because lanes remained under water.

The heavily used highway is a major route connecting four counties and last month it was closed or partially closed for nearly two weeks. Drivers were being diverted around the swamped lanes to Atherton Avenue, which Novato police have said creates traffic problems in the city.

The Highway 37 headache was expected to last for some days.

“With it raining right now and with another storm coming tomorrow, we’re anticipating more problems,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Andrew Barclay.

The Russian River crested Wednesday morning at 33.9 feet, almost two feet above flood stage. That was slightly lower than expected and no major problems were reported.

But with Thursday’s inclement possibilities, predictions were for the river to rise just above flood stage Friday morning. Flooding typically starts in Guerneville when the river gets higher than 32 feet.

Russian River Firefighter Jason Dooyes Wednesday said there was “just localized areas of flooding. It’s not like it was three weeks ago.”

The focus of river watchers and first responders now is on Thursday, said Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman.

“The next thing is to see how much rain we get tomorrow and see how many more slides we get,” Baxman said. “We’re crossing our fingers. See what tomorrow brings.”

Schools closed due to weather Wednesday were Guerneville School and Monte Rio Union School District.

Tuesday night’s rain, much lighter than the Monday-Tuesday storm, still brought significant rainfall. Rainfall totals from volunteer weather watchers as of 7 a.m. Wednesday showed that close to an inch fell in one Santa Rosa neighborhood in the prior 24 hours.

Cazadero took in almost 2 more inches and Sebastopol and Guerneville residents reported 1.5 inches. Other recordings included Windsor with .85, Glen Ellen .73 and .51 inches in Petaluma.

Other issues in the county included 31 closed roads, mainly from flooding, trees and mudslides. Drivers on Highway 1 north of Jenner will find the southbound lane closed in one spot because of road erosion. The closures mainly were in the West County and ranged from remote Old Cazadero Road to busier routes including Eastside Road where two spots were flooded.

The highway crossroads in Schellville in east Sonoma County also remained closed from flooding.

Power outages Wednesday in Sonoma County appeared to involve a few hundred people, according to a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. outage report.

Firefighters in the West County Tuesday night responded to several toppled trees, including along Cazadero Highway and on Highway 116 in Monte Rio at Redwood Drive. Another call was for a woman stranded in her car when she tried to drive through an area of Mays Canyon Road that was closed due to flooding.

Her call for help triggered a swift water rescue response. Baxman said the call turned out to be easier than that.

He drove his pickup into the water alongside her car. “I rolled down my window and she rolled down hers and crawled through the windows into the truck,” he said.

Wednesday her car was submerged, Baxman said.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@rossmannreport.