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Berkeley and the East Bay are in for heavy rain and damaging winds Wednesday night and into Thursday night, with up to 2.5 inches of rain expected along the San Pablo Ridge and wind gusts in excess of 40 mph forecast around the eastern bayshore in the next 24 hours.
The entire Bay Area and points beyond were scheduled for a wind advisory from 10 p.m. Wednesday until 10 a.m. Thursday, with onshore winds out of the southeast threatening to dislodge tree limbs and power lines.
Since Berkeley is inland of the seashore, it will be spared the brunt of the strongest winds, but the National Weather Service still warned of “isolated to widespread power outages throughout the region,” according to Meteorologist Roger Gass with the agency’s Monterey office.
As far as the rain goes, “we aren’t quite at the point where we’re expecting widespread landslides or anything like that, we really haven’t had enough rain this season so the ground is pretty stable,” Gass said. And on top of that, this new rain, along with moisture from last month, will help “significantly lower the wildfire risk” the region grapples with in the autumn.
In Berkeley and Oakland the hillier, inland parts of both cities were forecast to get heavier rain but mostly similar wind. The flatter neighborhoods closer to the San Francisco Bay are expected to get a quarter to half an inch of rain Wednesday night and up to another inch inch Thursday, with the rain petering out Thursday night, according to the NWS.
Winds will hover between 10 and 20 mph Wednesday night and Thursday in Berkeley. Wind gusts overnight were forecast up to 38 mph in the Berkeley Hills, 36 mph in the Berkeley flats, 31 mph in East Oakland and 33 mph in Oakland’s hills. Those gusts will increase to 43 mph around Berkeley Thursday.
Featured photo: Kelly Sullivan
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