{"id":155441,"date":"2026-01-29T21:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155441\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T21:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:02:39","slug":"how-arctic-air-in-miami-is-keeping-san-francisco-dry-this-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155441\/","title":{"rendered":"How arctic air in Miami is keeping San Francisco dry this January"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a relatively wet start<\/a> to winter, the Bay Area has been under a serious dry spell since early January. Downtown San Francisco is running about 20% below average precipitation for the month.<\/p>\n

National Weather Service meteorologist Rachel Kennedy explained one reason for the dry weather: a blast of arctic air, which led to record-cold temperatures and heavy snow and ice for much of the country this month, reaching as far south as Miami<\/a>, is also affecting Bay Area weather.<\/p>\n

“That kind of arctic air outbreak much to our east – in the Midwest and East Coast of the U.S. – that’s kind of helping to block this [high-pressure] ridge, and we’re really just waiting for something to break it down,” she told SFGATE.<\/p>\n

Kennedy said that the high-pressure ridge is the reason the Bay Area has seen mild weather for much of January, as it is preventing storm systems from developing and arriving in the region.<\/p>\n

“There are some low-pressure systems trying to develop in the Pacific Ocean, but because we have such strong ridging over the West Coast, they’re all being deflected northwards,” toward Alaska, Kennedy told SFGATE.<\/p>\n

Currently, the only potential for significant precipitation in the Bay Area is minor drizzle over the weekend in the far North Bay, according to Kennedy.<\/p>\n

“We need this ridge to go away before we can get anything,” she explained.<\/p>\n

Kennedy said a winter dry spell in the Bay Area isn’t unusual, but this one is “going on a little bit longer” than normal.<\/p>\n

While there’s still no major rain in the forecast, Kennedy warned that king tides are expected to arrive<\/a> in the Bay Area starting Thursday, bringing a potential for coastal flooding, with a forecast of 1.4 feet of flooding<\/a> above ground level. She warned commuters to be cautious is if they see flooding or\u00a0ponding on the road as the high tide comes in.<\/p>\n

“If you do see like flooding across a roadway or parking lot, turn around, don’t drown,” she said.<\/p>\n

More News<\/p>\n

– Bay Area driver frustration triggers updated Highway 101 rules<\/a>
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– COVID’s long shadow looms over new generation of college students<\/a>
– Outrage after stranded wild horses die in California forest<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up for\u00a0daily SFGATE breaking news alerts here.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at How arctic air in Miami is keeping San Francisco dry this January<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a relatively wet start to winter, the Bay Area has been under a serious dry spell since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[76248,4097,76249,60,76247,101,103,102,104,106,105,1066],"class_list":["post-155441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-arctic-air","tag-downtown-san-francisco","tag-dry-spell","tag-national-weather-service","tag-rachel-kennedy","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-the-bay-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}