The tail end of a cold front moved across northern California producing brief heavy rain.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS MTR wrote it up.
The tail end of a cold front moved across northern California producing brief heavy rain.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS San Francisco Bay Area, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 10, 3:53 AM PST, 1 hour 7 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
353 AM PST FRI DEC 10 2010
.DISCUSSION...AS OF 3:37 AM PST FRIDAY...MOISTURE CONTINUES TO
STREAM INTO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA IN ZONAL FLOW ALOFT. MAINLY HIGH
CLOUDS ARE COVERING THE NORTHERN HALF OF THE DISTRICT AT THIS TIME...
ALONG WITH PATCHY FOG IN THE NORTH BAY VALLEYS. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
EXISTS TODAY FOR THE BAY AREA NORTHWARD UNTIL THE MOISTURE SHIFTS
NORTHWARD AS HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS OVER THE EASTERN PACIFIC. THIS
WILL USHER IN DRY CONDITIONS FOR THE WEEKEND WITH MILD TEMPERATURES
EXCEPT IN FOG AFFECTED AREAS SUCH AS THE NORTH AND EAST BAY VALLEYS.
THE RIDGE IS PROGGED TO BE SHORT-LIVED...THOUGH...AS A WETTER PATTERN
SETS UP BEGINNING ON TUESDAY AS A LONG-WAVE UPPER TROUGH APPROACHES
AND SETS UP ALONG THE WEST COAST. SHORT WAVES ARE THEN FORECAST TO
MOVE THROUGH BRINGING RAIN CHANCES TO THE DISTRICT THROUGH THE END OF
THE WEEK.
&&
.AVIATION...AS OF 3:54 AM PST FRIDAY...A DIRTY RIDGE OF HIGH
PRESSURE PRESENTLY LOCATED ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA CONTINUES TO
STREAM MID LEVEL CLOUDS AND ISOLATED SHOWERS OVER THE TERMINALS.
THE RIDGE WILL CONTINUE TO BUILD OVER THE AREA TODAY BRINGING AN
END TO THE ISOLATED SHOWERS BY AFTERNOON. HOWEVER...AS THE RIDGE
BUILDS THE BOUNDARY LAYER WILL COMPRESS RESULTING IN LOW CLOUDS AND
REDUCED VISIBILITY FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING AT MOST
TERMINALS.
VICINITY OF KSFO...MVFR CIGS WITH VICINITY SHOWERS EXPECTED THROUGH
2200Z THIS AFTERNOON. VISIBILITY MAYBE OCCASIONALLY REDUCED TO LIFR
THROUGHOUT THIS MORNING. IFR TO LIFR CIGS AND VIS WILL BE POSSIBLY
FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY.
KSFO BRIDGE APPROACH...SIMILAR TO KSFO.
MONTEREY BAY AREA TERMINALS...MVFR TO IFR CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED
THIS MORNING WITH CONDITIONS IMPROVING TO VFR BY 2000Z. VLIFR
CONDITIONS WILL BE POSSIBLE FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING.
&&
.MTR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
.TDA...NONE.
&&
PUBLIC FORECAST: SS
AVIATION/MARINE: LARRYThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 debris flow. Local standard time, as filed.
At approximately 5:14 a.m. PST State Route 1 was closed 5.7 miles south of the junction of US 101 due to a mudslide. The roadway reopened at 6:58 a.m.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2010Every state in 2010This day in weather historyWarnings in California, December 2010
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 275614.