Third straight storm system bearing down on Bay Area

Rick Hurd, The Mercury News on Feb 18, 2026

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The battering weather that brought hard rain, thunder and lightning to the Bay Area and near white-out conditions in the Sierra Nevada ceased by early Wednesday, but a third successive storm system was on its heels and set to bring more widespread rain later Wednesday night and into Thursday.

According to the National Weather Service, the third one may not have all of the explosiveness of the second one.

“Late (Wednesday) we’re going to see a return to the widespread showers,” NWS meteorologist Rachel Kennedy said. “The bulk of it will be overnight into the Thursday morning, and then they will get scattered again. We have probably a 10-15 percent chance of some lightning and thunder, particularly in the South Bay and the Central Coast. But it’s not as much a certainty as the storm that came through Tuesday.”

The second of the storms was one of the more impactful systems in weeks. It brought claps of loud thunder and ground-to-sky bright lightning bolts while dropping streams of rain. By Wednesday morning, the tail end of that system still was creating isolated showers in the interior of the region.

The first of the three systems made its way through the region on Sunday, and rain has been falling off and on since then. The Santa Cruz Mountains have received the bulk of it. According to the weather service, rainfall totals in that area have ranged from 4½ inches to 5¾ inches since Sunday. One exception was Aptos, which has received between 6 and 6¼ inches since the rain began falling, the weather service said.

Elsewhere since Sunday, San Francisco has received 2.35 inches, San Francisco Airport and other areas of the Peninsula have received about 2.1 inches; San Francisco Airport and downtown Oakland have received about 2.1 inches, while Concord and San Jose each had about 1.8 inches.

As for the Sierra Nevada, the blizzardy conditions caused an avalanche that left nine skiers missing near Truckee. Six other skiers involved in the avalanche were rescued.

A winter storm warning remained in effect in the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday until 10 p.m., and snow was expected to fall at least into the afternoon. The weather service said 1-4 inches of snow were expected in the lower elevations and as much as 6 inches could fall in the higher ones.

Interstate 80 and state Highway 50 remained closed from Colfax through the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday morning.

Snow also fell closer to the region, with the weather service observing snow at the 2,500-foot elevation mark of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The weather service said Mount Hamilton in Santa Clara County received a small dusting of snow and that snow may fall on Mount Diablo when the third system arrives.

“It’s going to get pretty chilly overnight,” Kennedy said. “So it’s possible.”

Winds also are expected to increase as the third storm arrives. Kennedy said gusts could get as high as 30-35 mph throughout the region and perhaps blow as high as 40 mph in the upper elevations.