For this point in the water year — which starts in October — the totals are around twice the average at many Bay Area spots. November was drier than normal, and December brought about double the average rainfall.

The totals below are from Dec. 1 to Jan. 16 at National Weather Service stations.

The site of the greatest reading, Uvas Canyon, is at 1,100 feet elevation near the Casa Loma fire station, about 2 miles east of Loma Prieta.

To the south, Mining Ridge, at 3,288 feet elevation in Big Sur, has recorded 84.16 inches from Dec. 1 to this week.

Read more: 35 key figures that sum up the atmospheric river blitz

This trio of Bay Area bookstores may be just the spot for that.

Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary & Garden Arts

That eye-catching name was inspired by Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel, which opens with the charming line, “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” No wonder, then, that this cozy Berkeley neighborhood bookstore lined with well-curated shelves offering fiction, poetry and children’s books, includes an expansive Garden Arts section of books that combine literature with lifestyle.

Founded by Marion Abbott and Ann Leyhe in 2004, the store was purchased by longtime customers Eric and Jessica Green in 2021. Eric spent years in sales for Publishers Group West — and he has ideas for what you should be reading on these cozy winter evenings.

Book recommendations from Mrs. Dalloway’s 

“The Marriage Portrait” by Maggie O’Farrell: “Set against the backdrop of Florence during the mid-16th century, this novels brings the world of Renaissance Italy and the House of Medici to life with a brilliant reimagining of the short and unhappy life of Lucrezia de’ Medici,” Eric says. “It’s a tragic story, but one beautifully rendered in a time and place known for its sumptuous art and power-hungry deceit.”

“The Philosophy of Modern Song” by Bob Dylan: “A master class on the art and craft of songwriting, this work by iconic musician Bob Dylan presents over 60 personal essays on a range of musical artists, from Stephen Foster and Elvis Costello to Hank Williams and Nina Simone. Dylan analyzes what he calls ‘the trap of easy rhymes,’ breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal.”

“Five Laterals and a Trombone” by Tyler Bridges: “The 85th Big Game between Cal and Stanford is still famous for the wackiest finish ever to a college football game, with 21 seconds that featured five laterals on the final kickoff and a sprint through the Stanford marching band for the winning touchdown. Journalist Tyler Bridges has reconstructed the pivotal moments and resulting lore of the game, offering a nostalgic play-by-play trip down memory lane, especially for Cal faithfuls.”

“The Three Billy Goats Gruff” by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen: “A fabulously creative spin on the all-time children’s cult-classic, this is Billy Goats Gruff like he’s never been seen before. This risky read will have readers burning through pages with eager anticipation and anxious giddiness as they await the high-stakes meeting of beloved goat and hungry bridge troll. With arresting writing and mesmerizing illustrations, the book more than lives up to its legacy.”

“Inciting Joy” by Ross Gay: “In a collection of personal essays, author Ross Gay prompts readers to find joy in their daily experiences, the small moments in life and notably, the times when we care for others. Gay’s thoughtful, explorative reflections of his own experiences are the framework for his ideas on compassion, sharing and community. Written in a meandering, easily palatable conversational style, it’s a gorgeous and provocative must-read.”

Bookstore events

Mrs. Dalloway’s is known for its author events. Catch these authors in early 2023 for readings, book talks and signings:

7 p.m. Jan. 24: Peggy Orenstein, “Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater”

6 p.m. Feb. 9: Grace Lin and Kate Messner, “Once Upon a Book”

3 p.m. Feb. 26: Monica Wesolowska, “Elbert In the Air.”

Details: Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays at 2904 College Ave. in Berkeley; mrsdalloways.com.

Kepler’s Books

Founded in 1955 by peace activist Roy Kepler, this famous Menlo Park bookstore has deep roots in the Bay Area literary scene, drawing everyone from Beat poets to Stanford students, the Grateful Dead and Joan Baez. In 2005, financial conditions saw Kepler’s teetering on the brink of insolvency, but the community wouldn’t let it go under. The outpouring of support allowed the shop to reopen. Today, it’s a hybrid business that includes a community-supported bookstore and a nonprofit events foundation.

Kepler’s buyer Aggie Zivaljevic has some thoughts about what you should be reading this winter.

Book recommendations from Kepler’s 

“Foster” by Claire Keegan: “Foster is a majestically beautiful tale set in rural Ireland, centered around the story of a young girl’s transformation within a loving home,” Zivaljevic says. “Written with purposeful economy and strict precision, Claire Keegan’s words remain chiseled in the minds and hearts of readers. Don’t miss this unforgettably spiritual story that reconciles the heartbreak of childhood with the power of kindness.”

“If I Survive You” by Jonathan Escoffery: “This novel-in-stories brilliantly captures the complicated life of a young man’s Jamaican heritage family as they go about their days in Miami, Florida. A fiercely authentic challenge to the typical immigration success story, the book surprises and arrests readers with its genuinely raw, exuberant voice of humor, warmth and compassion.”

“Rabbit Hutch” by Tess Gunty: “In this debut novel, author Tess Gunty masterfully channels the mystical powers of the novel’s young main heroine, Blandine Watkins, and her uncanny insights. Blandine’s otherworldly beauty and an astute awareness of other people’s struggles make for an unapologetically unforgettable character. Beautifully dark yet charmingly humorous, it’s impossible not to laugh through the tears of this cathartic fiction.”

“Passenger” by Cormac McCarthy: “There is nothing that is not offered by this breathtaking, nomadic book centered on the travels of a plane crash survivor. Within its pages, you’ll encounter a never-ending flood of forbidden love, profound sorrow, cosmic loneliness, tormented minds, dreadful futility, empty religion, scientific theory and lingering mystery.”

“Last White Man” by Mohsin Hamid: “This fablelike, thought-provoking story greets readers with a shocking premise: What if you woke up one day, and your skin had drastically changed tones? The book’s main character takes readers on a tour of love, loss and rediscovery as he deals with the fact that he is darker than he was the day before. A masterly examination of personal and societal metamorphosis, race and mortality, the sheer force of these pages is absolutely haunting.”

Bookstore events: 

Kepler’s “This Is Now with Angie Coiro” series features journalist Coiro in conversation with authors and luminaries. These ticketed events are typically held at 7 p.m.

Jan. 17: In Conversation with Pico Iyer, “The Half-Known Life”

March 8: In Conversation with Lucy Jane Bledsoe. Lucy Jane Bledsoe, “Tell The Rest”

Details: Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and until 6 p.m. Sunday-Monday at 1010 El Camino Real, Suite 100 in Menlo Park; keplers.com.

Rakestraw Books

Founded in 1973, this charming Danville bookshop has a devoted Bay Area following, with book lovers from as far away as San Jose and Pleasant Hill detouring off Highway 680 for a browse. The bookshelves brim with books of all sorts, from biographies to children’s books, but what sets it apart is the store’s curated contemporary fiction collection, its profusion of live and virtual author events, and owner Michael Barnard’s impressive ability to not only pair reader and book, but remember a book lover’s favorites even years later.

Naturally, he has some thoughts about what you should read next.

Book recommendations from Rakestraw 

“Portrait of a Thief” by Grace D. Li: “This mind-bending crime novel centers on themes of colonization and reparation, following a Chinese-American college student who finds himself wrapped up in a museum heist,” Barnard says. “History is told by its conquerors, and the spoils of war often go with them. Artifacts are uprooted from their land and placed behind glass by those who looted them, but this straight-A student turned heist leader has a plan to steal them back and finally restore some justice to his heritage.”

“The Dog of the North” by Elizabeth McKenzie: “This smart, funny, heart-strong novel features Penny Rush, a woman leaving her Santa Cruz life behind — including her job and cheating husband — to go help her grandmother in Santa Barbara. There begins a madcap adventure, reminiscent of a Coen brothers movie, which includes a cast of quirky characters, each more eccentric than the next. But it’s Penny’s humor, outlook and compassion that’s the real heart of the story, and we root for her every step of the way.” (Publishes March 14)

“The White Lady” by Jacqueline Winspear: “This charming historical fiction tells the story of a former wartime operative and trained killer who is desperate to leave the past behind her. She hopes to live an unremarkable life in the quiet Kentish village of Shacklehurst, occupying a ‘grace and favor’ property granted to distinguished servants of the Crown. However, adventure soon comes calling, and she’s reluctantly dragged back into the world of deceit and violence she barely managed to escape the first time around.” (March 21)

“Unraveling: What I Learned about Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater” by Peggy Orenstein: “This humorous personal memoir begins with a woman who sets out to learn how to make a sweater from scratch, but her innocent interest soon blossoms into a journey of serious contemplation. She thought she was just picking up a hobby but winds up grappling with major modern issues, including climate anxiety, racial justice, women’s rights, the impact of technology, sustainability and ultimately, the meaning of home.” (Jan. 24)

“The Return of Faraz Ali” by Aamina Ahmad: “In this thrilling and enigmatic novel, a man is placed as head of the Mohalla police station in India and charged with the task of covering up the murder of a young call girl (while) hailing from Lahore’s notorious red-light district himself. This morally deplorable mission forces him to reckon with his past, uncovering not only the secrets of the city’s seedy labyrinth alleys, but those of his own hazy history as well.”

Bookstore events:

Rebecca Makkai, JoJo Moyes, Peggy Orenstein and Jacqueline Winspear are among the authors headed to Rakestraw in early 2023. This spring, Rakestraw Books will be celebrating its 50th anniversary with a season of special events, author appearances and parties. Look for details at rakestrawbooks.com.

Details: Open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays at 3 Railroad Ave. in Danville.

Fouled, the senior made the free throw.

Jalen Stokes followed with another basket in the paint after Dublin kept the possession alive with a couple of offensive rebounds.

What had been an eight-point lead over Monte Vista ballooned to 16 as the fourth quarter neared.

Dublin, ranked 11th by the Bay Area News Group, was well on its way to a 63-46 victory that improved the home team’s record to 13-6 overall and 2-0 in the East Bay Athletic League.

No. 15 Monte Vista, coming off a league-opening upset of third-ranked De La Salle on Tuesday, fell to 14-4, 1-1.

Stokes led Dublin with 16 points. Anderson and Mehki Thomas each finished with 13.

“Our mentality coming out of the halftime was just put it away,” Stokes said. “We were up pretty much the whole game. Our mentality was just put it away and finish strong.”

Mission accomplished.

Gaels earn the W with a 63-46 win over the Mustangs in front of a packed house in Dublin. pic.twitter.com/9j4ey3Pj2B

— Dublin High (@TheDublinHigh) January 14, 2023

The margin never got to single digits in the fourth quarter as Dublin’s athleticism took over. When Thomas threw down a dunk with three minutes to go to make it 59-43, Monte Vista coach Nick Jones had seen enough.

The backups finished the game.

“Once they got that edge on the glass, we were in trouble there,” Jones said. “I thought early, we punched back a little bit. I thought early on, we negated the crowd, the energy, and I thought we did a good job. We battled.

“But then at the end of the third quarter, we took a couple of bad shots and they just started getting really aggressive on the glass. That was a problem.”

Dublin coach Tom Costello said rebounding, particularly offensive rebounding, was the difference.

“We didn’t shoot it well,” he said. “We did not shoot it well at all. But we pounded the glass and got second, third, fourth efforts. That’s a hell of a team over there.”

Dublin packed its student section for what it called a Silent Night. The black-clad students remained silent until the Gaels scored their sixth point.

Then the crowd went wild.

Stokes’ drive put Dublin in front 6-0. But Monte Vista settled down and trailed by just a point after one quarter and five at halftime.

Sean Ahern’s basket to open the second half cut the deficit to 29-26. Dublin answered with a 7-0 run to take its first double-digit lead.

“We made more effort plays tonight,” Anderson said. “We got a lot more 50-50 balls and that led to us increasing the lead.”

Daniel Cojocaru (12 points) and Jake Fields (11) scored in double figures for Monte Vista, which will barely have time to catch its breath. The Mustangs play sixth-ranked Clayton Valley Charter on Saturday night in an MLK showcase at Miramonte before returning to EBAL play on Tuesday at eighth-ranked Granada.

Dublin will be at home Tuesday to face seventh-ranked California, which beat No. 2 San Ramon Valley on Friday.

After playing California, Dublin will visit De La Salle and San Ramon Valley.

“If there is ever an appropriate time for this cliche — one game at a time — is this sucker,” Costello said. “Nick asked me who we got next week. I was like, ‘I don’t even know.’ We’re going to enjoy this one and tomorrow it will be Cal, Cal, Cal.”

John Muir Health, a multibillion-dollar community health system in Contra Costa County, announced Thursday that it has entered into a definitive agreement with the San Ramon medical center’s owner, Tenent Healthcare, to acquire sole ownership, pending a review by the Federal Trade Commission.

“We believe that this acquisition is good for our community, caregivers, patients, and John Muir Health and San Ramon Regional Medical Center,” said Mike Thomas, president and CEO of John Muir Health.

The healthcare organization — serving patients in Contra Costa, eastern Alameda, and southern Solano counties — already operates two of the largest medical centers in Contra Costa County: John Muir Health Walnut Creek Medical Center and John Muir Health Concord Medical Center.

The Walnut Creek location serves as Contra Costa County’s only designated trauma center.

In 2013, John Muir Health invested nearly $100 million to acquire a 49% interest of San Ramon Regional Medical Center in San Ramon to expand its services throughout the Tri-Valley.

The new agreement allows John Muir Health to acquire the remaining ownership for $142.5 million.

San Ramon Regional Medical Center first opened its doors in 1990 and is a 123-bed acute care hospital that provides comprehensive inpatient, outpatient, and emergency care.

Current patients of both San Ramon Regional and John Muir Health should not expect their current medical care to be affected by the purchase, hospital spokesperson Ben Drew told this news organization.

“It will really be a fairly seamless integration, and there would be no need for anybody to change their doctors,” Drew said. “The transition will give more access to services in the Tri-Valley and then up through our hospitals in Walnut Creek and Concord.”

If all goes well, some immediate improvements John Muir intends to implement include investing in facilities and enhanced services to the medical center, extending non-profit community benefits programs to the San Ramon area, and cutting down on duplicative administrative expenses, according to its press release.

“We view this as a long-term opportunity to expand our services and better serve the growing populations in the San Ramon Valley and Tri-Valley. By allocating fixed costs over a broader scope of operations, we will also improve cost-effectiveness for patients and health plans,” Thomas said.

Even when the Danville school lost, accolades followed the 5-foot-11, 180-pound junior quarterback.

“Luke Baker is a heck of a quarterback,” Granite Hills-El Cajon coach Kellan Cobbs said after his team held off San Ramon Valley in overtime to capture the Division 2-A state championship.

McClymonds coach Michael Peters praised Baker similarly after his team edged San Ramon Valley 45-42 in early October.

Baker threw for 3,733 and 46 touchdowns, completing 270 of 420 attempts (64.3%). He also ran for 237 yards and five TDs.

San Ramon Valley finished 12-3, a resume that included a 35-21 victory over previously undefeated Campolindo in the North Coast Section Division II final and a 19-17 win over Marin Catholic for the NorCal 2-A title.

In the 2-A state final, Baker threw two TD passes and ran for a TD as San Ramon Valley charged back to force overtime before losing 31-24.

It all added to a clear decision for our staff: Baker is the Bay Area News Group’s 2022 high school football player of the year.

The youngest of three brothers who have started at quarterback for San Ramon Valley – Zack Baker (2014) and Clark Baker (2016 and 2017) also made a home behind center for the Wolves – Luke has separated himself from the pack.

“He’s the best. He’s the best I’ve ever coached,” Aaron Becker, San Ramon Valley’s head coach since 2013, said about Luke after the state championship game.

A Santa Clara University baseball commit, Baker took the loss in the state final hard, saying through tears that he wanted to win for the seniors.

“I wish I could have done a little more to make that happen for the guys,” Baker said.

One of those seniors, receiver Trevor Scott, had nothing but appreciation for the QB.

“Luke showed tremendous leadership all year,” Scott said. “I am really proud of him and excited to see what he’ll do next year.”

Baker is rated a three-star prospect by 247Sports.com. He has no football offers, according to the website.

With another season like this fall, maybe that’ll change.

ALL-BAY AREA NEWS GROUP FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Monday, Jan. 9

Kickers/punters

Offensive linemen

Defensive linemen

Athletes

Tuesday, Jan. 10

Utility players

Linebackers

Running backs

Wednesday, Jan. 11

Defensive backs

Wide receivers/tight ends

Quarterbacks

Bay Area News Group coach of the year

Thursday, Jan. 12

Alameda County player of the year

San Mateo County player of the year

Santa Clara County player of the year

Bay Area News Group player of the year

WHO IS ELIGIBLE

Those eligible for all-Bay Area News Group recognition come from leagues based predominantly in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. For corrections, please email highschools@bayareanewsgroup.com.

The famous local author wrote in his 1952 epic East of Eden that “sometimes it raged and boiled, bank full, and then it was a destroyer.”

“I think the public forgets,” Nieto said at a news briefing Thursday afternoon, “how dangerous the Salinas River can be.”

In the Bay Area, rain was expected overnight Thursday, but no more than one-tenth of an inch was expected in urban areas. Light rains are forecast to return Friday for the Monterey and San Francisco bay areas, delivering half and inch of rain to San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland, with up to an inch falling Saturday, and delivering snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

But in Monterey County, authorities and weather forecasters are concerned that a wave of water from storms earlier in the week is making its way down the Salinas River and up the Salinas Valley.

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office ordered evacuations for low-lying areas along the river in preparation of floods that could potentially close overland routes into the area, isolating residents and businesses.

Officials prepared for Highway 68, River Road, Reservation Road, Blanco Road, multiple secondary roads, and even Highway 1 to potentially close.

“There is a high probability that the Salinas River will flood all access points into the Monterey Peninsula at some point on Thursday… lasting through Sunday,” said a statement from Monterey County Supervisor Wendy Root Askew. “This means that anyone who is on the peninsula when flooding occurs will not be able to leave. Conversely, anyone who is not on the peninsula will not be able to enter.”

Monterey County last saw the Salinas River flood like that in 1995. In March of that year, river gauges at Spreckels, the community a few miles south of Salinas where the East of Eden movie was filmed in 1955, recorded a record level of 30.29 feet, said National Weather Service meteorologist Cindy Palmer.

Flood stage at Spreckels is 23 feet, and the river was projected to reach that level late Thursday night and crest Friday morning at 24.4 feet. That’s between its significant flood stage at 24 feet and moderate flood stage at 26 feet, Palmer said. Anything over 28 feet would be considered major flooding, she said.

But Monterey County officials stressed that a lot of factors need to be considered. Askew said at a news conference Thursday that high tides will play a role as the river flows down the watershed. And flooded areas along the route could spread out over farm fields and lessen the amount of water going down the river channel.

“We are basing this information on the best information we have at the time, and it changes daily and sometimes hourly because mother nature is fickle,” added Nieto.

By Thursday afternoon in Monterey County, there already were reports of flooding upriver in Chualar. Nieto said that the disaster will unfold sequentially, as the mass of river water makes its way downstream.

“This will not occur all at the same time,” Nieto said. “This is a slow moving event. The river crests at different times.”

Many residents along the river, especially those with children, already have heeded the evacuation order and left, said Danielle Parker, who lives in the Spreckels community. She and her husband moved their valuables to a friend’s place on higher ground in Salinas. But they and their Great Dane Harileigh weren’t leaving their Spreckels home, where the living quarters are raised above ground level to withstand flooding, with only the garage below exposed.

“We’re hunkering down,” said Parker, 35, whose home is about a mile from the river. “Everyone’s just kind of hanging out watching each others’ stuff for the friends and neighbors who left town.”

The die-hards staying put were planning a party at a community park in the afternoon, Parker said.

“Everyone’s bringing food and drinks, we’ll have music playing,” Parker said. “If it does flood as bad as it might, we’ll have some socialization before we’re all stuck in our houses.”

The nearby Monterey Zoo, and a bed and breakfast and a horse boarding stable were continuing their usual operations. Janine Garcia at the zoo said that “the potential for actually cresting to the point of impacting us is very unlikely — maybe the roads into or out of this area, but the zoo itself will not be impacted.”

Connections Boarding Stable owner Sheryl Fudge said that “if they close the access, we’re all prepared — we have plenty of food on hand, so we should be fine.”

The NWS predicted at least a chance of rain each day and night through Jan. 18, though heavy wind gusts seen in recent days may not materialize. Residents should still be wary, as heavily saturated soils could still leave a window of opportunity for strong gusts to bring trees down and cause damage.

The Bay Area was still assessing and cleaning up severe weather-related damage Thursday from earlier storms. A new sinkhole that opened around 3 a.m. Thursday forced the closure of Highway 92 in both directions from upper Highway 35 to Pilarcitos Creek Road.

At Monterey Bay Kayaks in Monterey, Adam Helm said it’s the slow season and they weren’t too worried about the drop in business. He said employees who work at the Monterey site could work at another location up the coast if road access is cut off.

“For what we’ve been through over the past few years with COVID, fires, this is pretty minimal,” Helm said.

The eighth and ninth storms to target California since Christmas are on the way this holiday weekend, making for volatile and treacherous conditions from the Bay Area to the Sierra.

The storms themselves won’t be as intense as those that devastated communities in the Santa Cruz mountains and along the beaches over the past week, but with rivers running high and soils already saturated, more flooding and mudslides are predicted across California. The Salinas River in southern Monterey County in particular is expected to flood Friday.

“We definitely appreciate the bounty, but we wish it was spread out over a longer period,” Jeff Lorber, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Wednesday.

So much snow has fallen already this season that sensors are registering what is considered the “full seasonal snowpack” normally expected by April 1, state climatologist Michael Anderson told reporters during a news briefing Wednesday. It’s still too soon to say whether the snowpack levels will hold until then, but if they do, they could provide ample snowmelt to continue to fill the reservoirs this spring and summer.

Kevin “Coop” Cooper, a longtime Tahoe area ski condition reporter and resort marketing consultant, said the abundant snow is a welcome change after several lean snow years during the state’s drought.

“Right now, I’m looking out of my house and it’s snowing lightly. We’re seeing a nice new amount of snow, temperatures are dropping,” he said Wednesday. “After my 30 years up here, this is one of the best MLK weekends we’ve seen in a long time.”

But that comes with a catch.

Video: California storms drop hail in the Bay Area, cause rockslides, sinkholes and more

With heavy snow and high winds predicted in the Sierra through the weekend, getting to the mountains could be dangerous. Travel in vulnerable areas, especially the Sierra, is not advised from Friday afternoon through Saturday, Lorber said, “when the winds and the rainfall will be at their peak.” The ninth storm is expected to roar in late Sunday through Tuesday.

It’s the kind of warning that weekend warriors amped to hit the Sierra slopes don’t like to heed.

“Fresh snow is like going through butter,” said Andrew Pham, 22, who stopped at Helm of Sun Valley ski shop in San Jose to attach bindings to his new snowboard and is planning to drive up Friday. “When you’re the first one on it, ooh.”

By Wednesday, snowpack levels reached 226% of average for this time of year, beating out 2005 which was 206% of average. All that fresh snow is giving experts reason to feel optimistic that drought conditions that have gripped the Golden State for three years could meaningfully ease by the end of the snowy season.

“The fact that we’re continuing to get this precipitation is just absolutely fantastic,” said Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist at the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Laboratory near Donner Summit. “It’s still unlikely that we’re going to get completely out of this drought in a single year. But if the storm door stays open… we can put a serious dent in it.”

As of Wednesday, major Northern California reservoirs have registered “impressive gains,” Anderson, the state climatologist, said. But there’s still plenty of catching up to do. Lake Don Pedro east of Modesto is at 69% capacity, for instance, and San Luis Reservoir southeast of the Bay Area, which has risen 35 feet since Dec. 1, is 40% full. The Shasta and Oroville reservoirs, the behemoths of California’s water system, are at 42% and 47% respectively. Lake Oroville has risen more than 90 feet since Dec. 1, surpassing its 2021 and 2022 levels.

“We’ve had quite a deficit because of the drought,” said Molly White, principal engineer with the state water board. “So we’re seeing steep inclines right now in storage, and hope that continues.”

In the Bay Area, Mount Umunhum in Santa Cruz County registered the highest rainfall total in the 24 hours leading to 10 a.m. Wednesday — 1.03 inches. Concord recorded 0.97 inches of rain. About six-tenths of an inch fell in Los Gatos; a quarter-inch fell at Ben Lomond, and two-tenths of an inch fell in San Jose and at the San Francisco International Airport.

In Tahoe, business is booming at ski resorts, despite struggles to keep lifts operational as a series of snow storms continues to plow through the Sierras. So much snow has accumulated in the Sierras already that ski resorts are having to keep track of avalanche risk hour-by-hour.

Mark McLaughlin, the so-called “storm king” who keeps track of Sierra conditions, said he listened to the concussive pounding Wednesday morning of cannons pelting the mountain sides of the Palisades Tahoe resort to trigger avalanches to improve safety before skiers arrive.

“I bet you I heard 20 of them this morning, 20 blasts,” McLaughlin said Wednesday.

John O’Connell, spokesman for Caltrans in the Lake Tahoe area, recommended that skiers from the Bay Area hit the road Thursday if they can, as the storm may arrive earlier Friday than initially expected. They should be prepared to put chains on their car tires unless they have four-wheel or all-wheel drive vehicles with tires designed for rain and snow. Either way, if there are chain controls due to ice and snow, vehicles should drive no faster than 30 mph, he said. And temporary road closures are possible during the snowstorms.

“We recommend people bring blankets, bottled water and snacks, have their phone charged up and a full tank of gas,” O’Connell said. “If we do have to hold traffic, you might be stuck up there in traffic that’s not moving for a little bit. We just want people to be prepared.”

Pham, who was tuning up his snowboard in San Jose on Wednesday, is still hoping to hit that fresh snow.

“But Dad called and said the storm is coming and I shouldn’t go,” he said. “So I guess I’m 50/50. But it would probably be worth it.”

Staff writer Scooty Nickerson contributed to this story.

The new law is intended to ensure that seniors and other adults — in particular those who rely on cannabis for medicinal reasons — have access marijuana vaping products. Proposed by Supervisor Diane Burgis, the ordinance allows permitted cannabis retailers located in unincorporated areas to sell and deliver the products.

The ordinance passed 3-2 with supervisors Federal Glover and Candace Anderson voting no.

During the first reading of the ordinance on Dec. 6, Burgis said the motivation behind the revised ordinance was that the 2019 law hurt seniors and other adults who rely on cannabis vaping products for both recreational and medical reasons. In particular, it affected homebound seniors in unincorporated areas, she said.

“What we’re trying to do by having policies here in Contra Costa County is to give people a way to access safe products,” Burgis said.

At the December meeting, both Glover and Anderson voted against the ordinance, saying it would send mixed messages to the public and betray an effort led by Contra Costa youth who wanted the ban in the first place.

“We clearly took a leadership position back in 2019 when we had a number of our students throughout this county that came before us and asked for the leadership to put this ban in place,” Glover said. “And I’m not going to turn away from that. I think it’s important that that we listen to our youth when they cry out and ask for this help.”

Glover said there is no evidence “that vaping does not cause problems to individuals” and partially lifting the ban would send “false messages or confusing messages to our public that it’s OK to do this this while at the same time saying that we want to prevent it.”

On Tuesday, groups advocating for cannabis access told the Board of Supervisors that banning pot vape products has created an illicit black market for the product and disproportionately affected vulnerable populations who rely on cannabis primarily for medical reasons.

Renee Lee, a resident of the retirement community of Rossmoor who runs an organization with a mission to help seniors legally access and safety use cannabis, said the majority of medicinal cannabis users in the unincorporated community near Walnut Creek prefer vaping.

“I am so happy,” Lee said after Tuesday’s vote. “It’s like a big weight off my shoulders … (the ordinance) had been very unfair.”

Sarah Armstrong of American for Safe Access, the country’s largest and oldest advocacy organization for medical cannabis patients, said forcing people to travel medicinal marijuana “often stimulates a black market because they simply cannot go to the nearest dispensary if they don’t have one near them.”

Before the vote, Burgis emphasized that the ordinance makes no change to the current ban of tobacco and flavored tobacco vaping products; nor does it allow for new dispensaries in unincorporated areas.

“This does allow the sale of one particular set of cannabis products, which are already sold in many cities of Contra Costa County and are available to purchase in nearly every other part of the state that has approved cannabis retail sales,” she said.

In passing the ordinance, the board also directed Contra Costa Health Services to begin working on an awareness program about the dangers of youth cannabis vaping. Supervisor John Gioia said creation of such a program was a major factor in his decision to support the new legislation.

State and local officials on Tuesday began cleaning up from the half-dozen atmospheric rivers that have pummeled California since late December, killing at least 17 people and leaving 96,000 people under evacuation warnings or orders amid the risk of flooding and mudslides. Their work came amid a brief respite from the rain and the wind but with more strong storms expected to arrive later in the week.

Although none of the coming storms are forecast to be as big as the “bomb cyclone” that hit last week, residents have been warned to stay vigilant. While touring the storm and tide-ravaged community of Capitola on Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom cautioned that even a little rain could cause outsized effects due to heavily-saturated soils.

“The magnitude of this is not isolated to smaller communities, it is scaled across the largest state in our union,” Newsom said. “We’re soaked. This place is soaked. And now just more modest amount of precipitation could have as equal or greater impact in terms of the conditions on the ground.”

On Tuesday, nearly every corner of the state had felt the impacts of the recent atmospheric onslaught that caused flooding and myriad downed trees in Northern California, mudslides and a major evacuation in the Southern California community of Montecito and heavy snow across the length of the Sierra Nevada.

California Storms video: Hail in the Bay Area, rockslides, sinkholes and more

On the Central Coast, where some of the storm’s worst effects were felt, a 5-year-old boy died Monday after being swept away in a San Luis Obispo County creek, authorities said. A woman also drowned the same day after driving onto a mile-long section of Central Coast roadway that had been closed due to flooding, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Visiting the Santa Cruz coast, Newsom vowed to provide assistance to Capitola, where huge waves stoked from a “bomb cyclone” last week tore out a section of the historic Capitola Wharf and smashed and flooded a half-dozen beachfront Capitola Village restaurants.

“We’re not walking away,” Newsom said, standing on the town’s waterfront where generations of Bay Area residents have gone to frolic on the sand, dine and drink on seaside patios. From Dec. 31 through Sunday, heavy rains and a devastating tidal event caused at least $28 million in damages to public property across unincorporated Santa Cruz County, said Jason Hoppin, spokesman for Santa Cruz County. In addition, five buildings were red-tagged, and another 131 were deemed significantly damaged but repairable.

That doesn’t include any damage sustained Monday when the San Lorenzo River flooded its banks and sent water rushing into numerous buildings. Nor does it include a line of gusty storms to tear through the county early Tuesday morning, which prompted dozens of 911 calls from people reporting trees falling onto their houses..

Newsom gave no specifics regarding state aid to businesses Wednesday, nor details about funding for rebuilding the wharf. He also did not reveal whether the Seacliff Wharf — a state facility just down the coast that once led to a now-damaged cement-filled ship — would be repaired after damage from the storm. “All that will be determined,” Newsom said.

Around the Bay Area, the true extent of the recent storms began coming into focus Tuesday, even as thunderstorms dropped pea-sized hail and yet more rain.

In Santa Clara County, at least $24 million in damages to public property had been tallied by city and county officials through midday Tuesday — a figure that was expected to evolve as more assessments were completed, a county official said. Much of that tally included damage to roadways — more than a dozen of which remained closed midday Tuesday.

The heavy rains also caused dozens of sewage spills around the Bay Area and other parts of the state as sewage systems became overwhelmed by huge amounts of water pouring into the ground and seeping into pipes. Since New Year’s Eve, for example, at least 22 million gallons of “unauthorized discharges” occurred in the Bay Area, said Eileen White, executive officer for the San Francisco Bay Water Quality Control Board.

About 150 calls a day have streamed into the dispatch center for Bay Area Tree Specialists of late, said Michelle Reulman, the business’ office manager.

“This is a state of emergency,” said John Gill, owner of Majestic Tree Service, just moments after helping to clear a tree that fell on three vehicles and a house Wednesday off Bascom Avenue in San Jose. “You drive every five minutes, and there’s a tree down on a house or the street or the road or it’s flooded.”

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, a falling eucalyptus tree topped a 137-foot tall transmission tower in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood. The weight of the tower brought down three distribution poles as well as power lines and some transformers, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesperson Mayra Tostado said in an update posted to Twitter. As a result, about 2,100 customers lost power.

“We’ve brought in additional resources to be able to restore power as quickly as possible to our customers,” Tostado said. “We understand how disruptive it has been to be without power and we’re doing everything we can to turn the lights back on as quickly as possible.”

Tostado said the region saw winds up to 70 mph and 100 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes.

The South Bay took a big punch from Mother Nature today. @PGE4Me responded to an outage in San Jose’s Willow Glen due to a eucalyptus tree knocking down a 137-ft. tall transmission tower. With its weight, it pulled down power lines and poles connected to it. Here’s my report. pic.twitter.com/HJUJm9tqDA

— Mayra Tostado (@PGE_Mayra) January 11, 2023

Many of the trees were felled during an onslaught of thunderstorms Tuesday that knocked out power to tens of thousands of people across the Bay Area, while dropping between .25 and 1.25 inches of rain across most of the South Bay, the East Bay and the Peninsula. Much of the Santa Cruz mountains received between .66 and 1.4 inches of rain overnight, pushing three-day storm totals to between 6 and 8 inches of rain across much of the area.

As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, 24-hour precipitation totals around the Bay Area included 1.21 inches in San Francisco, 1.18 inches in Oakland, 1.11 inches in Concord,.41 inches in San Jose and .40 inches in Livermore, according to the weather service.

More than 40,000 PG&E customers were without power as of 5 p.m. Tuesday — the majority of them in the South Bay where more than 27,000 customers remained without electricity, according to the utility provider.

To the east across the Sierra Nevada, a remarkable run of snowfall continued to push the state’s snowpack higher — reaching 215% of its average for this date across the state, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The southern Sierra already has received more than it normally gets by April 1, while the northern Sierra is about 75% of the way to that mark.

Another .1 to .25 inches of rain is expected to fall over much of the Bay Area on Wednesday, with higher amounts forecasted to hit the North Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains, according to the National Weather Service. Some brief showers may hit the region on Thursday or Friday, but the area should remain mostly dry under cloudy skies those days.

Many residents found themselves whiplashed from the see-sawing weather. In Soquel, near Santa Cruz, Roman Bodnarchuk wondered aloud at the next curveball from Mother Nature after a dramatic two weeks of joy and catastrophe.

Just after Christmas, he had finally succeeded in getting his war-refugee parents out of Ukraine — where they lived near a power station under frequent Russian bombardment — and to his rented house by Soquel Creek.

“It’s very stressful,” said Bodnarchuk, 30. “You can imagine how frustrating it was to leave the house when my mom is sick and having to deal with all these situations. Hopefully the house withstands all this damage.”

He couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread at viewing forecasts for additional rain in the coming week

“We’re very worried,” Bodnarchuk said. “It’s been difficult enough already.”

Rick Hurd, Julia Prodis Sulek, Jason Green and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The powerful train of Pacific storms battering California with record rainfall and major flooding will slow, perhaps even stop, meteorologists say — but not until the second half of January.

In the meantime, expect the weather drama to continue. At least three more storms – ranging from moderate to significant — are predicted over the next seven to 10 days, flooding more landscapes that are already saturated with rainwater.

On the distant horizon is a ridge of high-pressure air that may help block incoming storms — and weaken those that do get through, according to state climatologist Michael Anderson. High-pressure ridges deflect storms north toward British Columbia, away from California.

“After January 19th, the storms die down and we see that high pressure resuming its ‘blocking stance’ of shunting storms back to the north,” said Anderson, although there’s uncertainty in such a long-term forecast.

VIDEO: Rescues on Highway 101, Flooding across the Bay Area

It came as flood waters from Uvas Creek spilled their banks, flooding houses on the 4000 block of Monterey Road, near Highway 101. The occupants of the houses had already left their residences by the time emergency crews arrived, according to Josh Shifrin, a Cal Fire battalion chief in Santa Clara County.

Monday’s storm was the sixth in a series of atmospheric rivers, plumes of tropical moisture that are responsible for much of California’s precipitation.

The seventh storm is expected on Tuesday, with at least two others likely to follow starting Wednesday and again Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Tuesday’s cloudburst is likely to produce brief spiraling bands of strong coastal thunderstorms from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles County, with brief and intense rain, wind gusts over 60 miles per hour and potential ‘’waterspouts,’’ or weak coastal tornados.

These are the kinds of conditions that set the stage for significant flash flooding and debris flows, especially along the Big Sur coast and the steep Transverse Ranges of Santa Barbara, Ventura, and some other southern California counties.

After that, the incoming sequence is likely to be cooler, with accumulations of drier mountain snowfall, according to UC Los Angeles climate scientist Daniel Swain. This is good news because it reduces the amount of runoff coming from the mountains, where California’s frozen reservoir of snowpack accounts for about one-third of the state’s water supply.

While no single storm in January’s nine-storm sequence has proven catastrophic, the relentless pattern has left little time for drainage, recovery and drying out.

Flooding concerns will likely persist all week, although they do not appear as threatening as Monday’s and Tuesday’s events, said Swain.

Then “we will start to get a break,” he said. “It will give the rivers in Northern California and in central California a chance to come down.”

“We still do have significant events to get through between now and then,” he added, “but there is some ‘cool down’ of this active pattern on the horizon.”

The steady downpours are unsettling to Californians in part because we’ve become accustomed to dry conditions, say climate scientists. Over the past decade, our winters haven’t felt much like winter.

The late 1990s were the last times that we saw a sustained wet period and regionally devastating events, with many storm cycles like the current one, said Swain.

Those storms were associated with strong El Niño events. But, interestingly, El Niño — when ocean waters warm, often causing wet winters to California — isn’t behind the current pattern. We are in our third year of La Niña — and it is weakening, exerting a waning influence..

“We really can’t attribute this current cycle either to La Niña or El Niño, because neither of them are particularly strong right now,” said Swain.

“So there’s something else going on this year,” he said. “It could just be random luck, or it could be something that’s a little more traceable that we’ll find out about later. It’s almost impossible to see in the moment.”

Delving back farther into the historical and geophysical record shows that the Golden State is a landscape that has long experienced swings in precipitation.

“California is intrinsically a place that has a lot of variability…with extreme swings between extreme dry and extreme wet conditions,” he said. Climate scientists call that “precipitation whiplash.”

Extraordinary megaflood events are rare. The most recent one occurred in 1861-1862, when a multi-week super-soaker storm sequence — dubbed “The Great Flood of 1862” — inundated vast swaths of young California, including a 300-mile long stretch of the Central Valley, large portions of the modern-day Los Angeles metro area, and virtually every narrow river valley throughout the state, according to Swain.

That storm started on Christmas Eve — and continued until early February.

When UC Berkeley geologist B. Lynn Ingram looked back even further in time into the historic record  —  using sediment cores from flood plains, bays or the ocean coasts  —  she found thick flood layers produced by other big storms, with an 1861-type flood, or larger, occurring about every 200 years.

With climate change, California will face more profound floods, according to models. It will experience overall drying, but also larger and more frequent atmospheric river storms fueled by increasing evaporation in the tropics.

Last year, Swain’s ARkStorm [Atmospheric River 1,000 Storm] scenario modeled the impacts of an 1861-type storm and calculated potential losses of more than $700 billion.

“We strongly believe that someday — and perhaps sooner rather than later, although we don’t know when — we will see a truly catastrophic storm sequence in California,” said Swain.

“We should get used to storms cycles like this one.”