SAN JOSE, Calif. — One of the wettest periods in the Bay Area’s recorded history began winding to a close this week with a lashing of rain that caused hillsides to buckle in the Berkeley and Oakland hills and several highways to close across Northern California.
Yet even as emergency crews scrambled to red-tag houses and clear storm drains, California water and climate officials voiced relief at mostly sunny forecasts for the foreseeable future.
A ridge of high pressure is expected to largely cut off the flow of atmospheric rivers to the state in the coming days, meaning that California should expect largely dry weather through the end of January. The only blemish in that otherwise dry forecast: A far less-severe storm rolling through the state on Wednesday, which should bear a fraction of the moisture as the previous deluges of the last two months.
