Christmas Day in San Francisco to be coldest since 1998

If Sunday morning feels unusually frigid in San Francisco, it’s because the city is expected to shiver through the coldest Christmas Day in nearly two decades, forecasters said.

The city’s expected low of 41 will be the coldest Christmas since 1998, when San Franciscans faced 38-degree weather, according to National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson. Sunday’s weather is expected to be even chillier inland, with much of the North Bay and East Bay facing freezing temperatures.

The cold snap comes in the wake of a storm Friday that boosted rainfall totals across the region to normal or above-normal levels for the rain season to date, Anderson said. Santa Rosa has received 159 percent of its normal precipitation for the season, the highest in the region. San Jose, which had been hovering slightly below its normal, was brought up to 100 percent. San Francisco was at 119 percent of normal.

More than a foot of snow dropped in the Sierras during a storm Friday and Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. Kingvale (Placer County) reported the most at 18 inches. More than a foot of snow dropped in the Sierras during a storm Friday and Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. Kingvale (Placer County) reported the most at 18 inches. Photo: National Weather Service Photo: National Weather Service Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Christmas Day in San Francisco to be coldest since 1998 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

The storm dropped a decent amount of snow in the Sierra, too. The highest was reported in Kingvale (Placer County) with 18 inches, said Tom Dang, a meteorologist with the weather service. At the pass level, most areas reported between 12 and 16 inches of snow, he said.

“It’s still snowing,” Dang said Saturday morning. “There are still a few snow bands moving through now, and there could be lingering showers into the afternoon.”

Meanwhile in San Francisco, residents and tourists were bracing for another cold morning ahead.

“It gives you a Christmas feel,” Loryn Ross of San Juan Bautista (San Benito County) said of the cold. “It’s a part of nature and part of seasons changing, and we’ll just have to bundle up.”

Ross, who was with her husband, Rich, walking their three dogs at Union Square on Saturday, said they will bundle up the pooches, too.

“We welcome the cold,” she said. “We bought little coats for them.”

Not far away, 64-year-old Azai Alyda was clutching a coffee and said he felt very awake, which the longtime San Francisco resident attributed to the cold, not the drink.

News that Christmas would be the coldest in nearly two decades startled Joseph Amster, a tour guide dressed in his signature Emperor Norton costume. Amster, who would be crossing the Golden Gate Bridge six times on Christmas Day, said Saturday that he had a plan.

“I’ll get my mufflers, gloves, thermal, pullover and thick socks,” he said.

Amster said he thought the real Norton, a beloved eccentric who in 1859 declared himself ruler of the United States, would be worried by the cold if he were alive today.

“He’d be concerned about the safety of his loyal subjects,” Amster said. “Especially those living on the streets.”

Susan Mullan, 50, who has been homeless since April, said, “It’s too goddamn cold.” She said that although someone stole her blanket Friday night, she was able to keep her sleeping bag by fending off would-be thieves with a short broom.

While it remained a long shot for snow to fall on Bay Area mountains Christmas Day, the odds were much better farther south.

Up to 10 inches of snow were forecast for the Santa Lucia Mountains near Big Sur in Monterey County, while 2 inches could dust areas as low as 2,500 feet in the Santa Cruz Mountains. An inch had already fallen above Carmel Valley on Saturday morning, Anderson said.

The storms so far this winter have allowed nearly 30 percent of California to crawl out of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. At the beginning of October, all of the state was considered in various stages of drought.

But the healthy trend may not last through the season, Anderson said.

“Last year or two years ago when January rolled around we stopped getting rain,” he said. “Just because we’re above normal now doesn’t mean it’ll continue that way.”

And while any precipitation is good, most of the storms so far have been on the warmer side, Dang said. That put the state’s snowpack level — “the reservoir for the reservoirs,” he called it — at just 61 percent.

On the bright side, the meteorologists said, the storm Friday and Saturday was quite cold.

“The Sierra is getting plenty of snow from everything I’ve seen,” Anderson said. “All that water that’s locked away in the snow is good news.”

Chronicle staff writer

Lizzie Johnson contributed

to this report.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov