43 mph gusts on Golden Gate Bridge as storm hits Bay Area

Thursday morning’s storm rolled through the Bay Area as advertised with heavy rain dousing the northern parts of the region and high winds buffeting bridges and hill tops, forecasters said.

By 9 a.m., San Francisco had only picked up about a quarter of an inch of rain, but some spots in the coastal hills of Sonoma and Napa counties saw between two and three inches of rainfall.

Highway 116 was briefly closed at Armstrong Woods Road, but by 6:45 a.m. officials had reopened one lane with traffic controls in both directions.

Many areas reported a lull in precipitation during the morning commute, but more showers were forecast for the afternoon.

[...] a cold front associated with the storm was still on its way south, said Steve Anderson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.

A number of watches and advisories were in effect around the region, including a high-wind advisory for the North Bay, a flood advisory for low lying coastal areas, especially at high tide, and a high surf advisory was expected to take effect around 4 p.m. Anderson said a buoy about 300 miles west of San Francisco was measuring waves around 26 feet, which should arrive on the coast by Friday morning.

A dispatcher with the CHP said they hadn’t seen a wild uptick in accidents around Bay Area roadways, though they had received some reports of spot flooding and advised drivers to slow down and give each other plenty of space on the road.