The National Weather Service has issued a flood advisory for much of the Bay Area, including San Francisco, in response to an atmospheric river bringing heavy rain to the region Thursday morning.

The Bay Area and Monterey Bay was being pounded by heavy rain and strong winds as an atmospheric river storm passed through the region Thursday.

Rain drops fell into puddles Thursday, sending smalls bits of splashes everywhere. Cars dripped as if slammed by a carwash. And that was in the East Bay, the area where an anticipated atmospheric river storm showed the lesser version of its force as it hit the region.

Winter storm warnings spanned Mono County, as well as the Sierra Nevada from Yosemite National Park to Tulare County.

Evacuation warnings are in effect from 6 p.m. Thursday through 11 a.m. Sunday in areas near recent burn scars, due to the risk of mud and debris flows.

Increased solar activity causes auroras that dance around Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, and southern lights, or aurora australis. When the energized particles from coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create different colored lights in the sky.

The predicted speed of the third coronal mass ejection in the series was the highest he’d ever seen: about 870 miles per second. Conde said that although the best auroras were forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, the lights could continue to shine for the next few days.

While rain drenched the Bay Area, an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 3.6 shook the region near Vallejo, according to the United States Geological Survey.