East Bay welcomes rain as some pondered where winter went

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- The Bay Area saw the first significant rain of the new year Monday and it was most welcome to those who were beginning to wonder where the winter went.

I think we need rain," said Jason Spector, as he walked in Oakland with his umbrella. "I mean I want to like go snowboarding and skiing, so I'm excited about the rain."

In Oakland, the rain did bring with it some minor flooding issues. Storms drains were filled with debris from the extensive dry spell that was December.

The weather produced some slick roadways in Contra Costa County, but no significant problems otherwise given the lack of ground saturation so far.

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"It's relatively early, we haven't had a lot of rainfall," said Brian Balbas, Interim Director of the Contra Costa County Public Works Department. "So most of the rainfall is infiltrating into the soil and we haven't had any real problems with any slides or anything like that."

And while some may find the rain an inconvenience, the water watchers at the East Bay Municipal Utilities District welcome the deluge.

"This storms looking pretty good," said David Briggs, EBMUD's Director of Water Operations. "We'll probably get about two inches locally here in our East Bay watersheds, and probably about a foot of snow up country at about 8,000 feet."

EBMUD'S major water storage facility, Pardee is currently 93 percent full, well above average for this time of year.

The storm ranked a "3" on the exclusive ABC7 Storm Impact Scale.

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