Residents of the Bay Area reveled in a third straight day without rain on Thursday, capping a 72-hour spell that seemed to be needed as much a three-day weekend.

The fun appears to be over.

Another wet-Weather system was expected to make its way through the region at a snail’s pace beginning sometime Saturday. Experts said the storm was driven by the latest blast of unstable air, the same phenomena that has sent storm after storm over the Bay Area since the beginning of the year.

“The larger-scale pattern that’s bringing the system this weekend is a slow-moving one,” NWS meteorologist David King said Friday afternoon. “The atmosphere and its large-scale patterns remain very active and unstable, and that’s not changing.”

The weather service did not forecast rainfall totals but said that the weekend rain is expected to be considerably lighter than recent storms. King said forecasters’ confidence in the possibility of heavy rain next week is “low.”

The system also likely will deliver more snow to elevations above 2,500 feet, according to the weather service. As a result, the agency issued a winter weather advisory for the North Bay interior mountains.

Traffic on Interstate 80 and state Highway 50 were expected to be affected, as were sections of I-5 in the north part of the state. In Shasta County, snow may fall as low as 500 feet, according to the weather service.

All of it will continue to challenge Pacific Gas & Electric workers, who have been tasked with restoring power to the region during the recent storms. Storms have damaged 1,746 poles and 822 transformers during the winter season, and workers have had to restore power to about 1.35 million customers.

A major wave of workers swarmed a section of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Los Gatos late this week, repairing damage left by last week’s storms.

“Our crews continue to face risks from mudslides, falling trees and ice and snow falling from trees onto our electrical equipment,” utility spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian said. “We continue working closely with local and state agencies that manage roadway access.”

Related Articles

• Weather |
  Some California mountain residents could be snowed in a week
• Weather |
  Oakland plans to unleash ‘pothole blitz’ to fix notorious street damage
• Weather |
  Los Gatos: Hundreds still without power as Black Road repair project finishes early
• Weather |
  Deep snow closes Yosemite and other California parks
• Weather |
  Conditions for snowed-in California mobile home park ‘pretty bleak’

More snow also was expected in the upper elevations in Southern California, possible affecting travel on I-5 over The Grapevine.

As for the rain, it’s expected to arrive in areas of Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties sometime Saturday morning before making its way across the East Bay and down through the South Bay later in the day.

“It will likely be Saturday night into Sunday morning that the surface cold front is gonna push through, and we’ll get more moderate rain,” King said. “That’s when most of the accumulation will be.”