BOSTON (AP) — More than a thousand flights were canceled or delayed across the Northeast and Great Lakes regions due to snow as thousands took to roads and airports during the busy travel period between Christmas and New Year’s.
New York City received about 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) of snow Friday night into early Saturday — slightly under what some forecasts had predicted. At least 1,500 flights were canceled from Friday night, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. But by the morning, both the roads and the skies were clearing.
“The storm is definitely winding down, a little bit of flurries across the Northeast this morning,” said Bob Oravec, a Maryland-based forecaster at the National Weather Service.
Oravec said the storm was moving from the northwest toward the Southeast, with the largest snowfall in the New York City area reaching over 6 inches (15 centimeters) in central eastern Long Island. Farther north in the Catskills, communities saw as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters).
Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports posted snow warnings on the social media platform X on Friday cautioning that weather conditions could cause flight disruptions.
The National Weather Service warned of hazardous travel conditions from the Great Lakes through the northern mid-Atlantic and southern New England, with the potential for tree damage and power outages.
In Times Square, workers in red jumpsuits worked to clear the sludge- and powder-coated streets and sidewalks using shovels and snowblowers.
Jennifer Yokley, who was there on a holiday trip from North Carolina, said she was excited to see snow accumulating as it dusted buildings, trees and signs throughout the city.
“I think it was absolutely beautiful,” she said.
Payton Baker and Kolby Gray, who were visiting from West Virginia, said the snow was a Christmas surprise for their third anniversary trip.
“Well, it’s very cold, and it was very unexpected,” Baker said, her breath visible in the winter air. “The city is working pretty well to get all the roads salted and everything, so it’s all right.”
Ahead of the storm, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for more than half of the state. Acting New Jersey Gov. Tahesha Way also declared a state of emergency for that state.
“This storm will cause dangerous road conditions and impact holiday travel,” Way said in a statement. “We are urging travelers to avoid travel during the storm and allow crews to tend to the roads. Drivers should plan their travel accordingly, monitor conditions and road closures, and follow all safety protocols.”
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Walker reported from New York.
]]>Sunny skies, calmer winds and cooler temperatures are forecast to return to the Bay Area on Saturday and linger into early next week, offering a respite from a weeklong parade of storms that felled trees, flooded roadways and caused power outages affecting thousands of people.
In the Sierra, clouds were expected to part beginning Saturday, potentially allowing skiers easier access over Interstate 80 and Highway 50 to take advantage of several feet of fresh powder around Lake Tahoe.
A few final rounds of rain and gusty conditions were expected throughout the day Friday, particularly around midday and into the early afternoon as a final band of storms sweep through the region.
But in a word, the weather should be “beautiful” for the last several days of 2025, said Dylan Flynn, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
“The sun will be shining, the wind will be light — it’s going to be really nice,” Flynn said. The only potential drawback will be cooler temperatures that could dip overnight into the 30s for parts of the Bay Area, making it “noticeable, especially compared to how warm it’s been,” he added.
The calmer forecast comes after a drumbeat of storms pummeled the Bay Area, bringing with them hurricane-force gusts that toppled trees and left many residents celebrating Christmas in the dark.
RELATED: Horse found roaming North Bay roadway during winter storm
Several thousand people were without power Friday morning, the vast majority in the Santa Cruz Mountains, along with other parts of the Peninsula and in the South Bay, according to Pacific Gas & Electric’s outage map. In all, the storms this week knocked out power to more than 777,000 people across PG&E’s California network, said Paul Moreno, a spokesman for the utility provider.
As of 10:45 a.m., more than 8,700 customers remained without power in the Bay Area, with nearly 5,000 of them being in the North Bay, PG&E reported. Another nearly 2,400 were without power in the Peninsula.
A blown transformer during the storm Wednesday evening forced the closure of two of the four bores of the Caldecott Tunnel connecting Alameda and Contra Costa counties on Highway 24. A Caltrans spokesperson said Friday afternoon that they hoped to re-open both bores by late Friday.
Overnight Thursday into Friday, the weather service received reports of downed trees affecting Highway 152 and several boats damaged in the Santa Cruz Harbor from more bands of storms that rolled through the area.
Radar indicated a possible water spout in Monterey Bay, just outside of Santa Cruz, on Christmas Day, Flynn said, though it was not immediately clear whether it came ashore and caused any damage. The weather service also issued a tornado warning over the Santa Cruz Mountains later in the day, though it later appeared unlikely that anything touched down. Formal survey teams had not yet been dispatched at midday Friday.
Perhaps the greatest damage to emerge late this week came at the Lick Observatory atop Mt. Hamilton, where gusts of up to 114 mph on Christmas Day ripped open the shutter to the 36-inch Great Refractor dome, the observatory announced Friday. The dislodged shutter, which weighs more than two tons, “fell outward onto the roof of the Great Hall, crushing several structural beams,” the announcement said.
The telescope itself — which was the world’s largest when it opened in 1888 — was not damaged. Yet repairs to the facility are expected to take months, particularly with the added complication of the telescope’s precision lenses and electrical systems now being “vulnerable” to precipitation, observatory officials said.
“It’s hard to imagine a structure that solid and large failing in such a way — it was just mind-boggling,” said Elinor Gates, senior resident staff astronomer at Mt. Hamilton. The damage will limit public access to the facility for the foreseeable future, she added, stressing that “we want to make sure it’s safe before we let anyone up to the main building and visitors center.”
In all, since the first storms came ashore last weekend, Oakland and San Francisco have received more than 4 inches of rain, while the Oakland and Berkeley hills — along with the Santa Cruz Mountains to the southwest — received between 5 and 8 inches of precipitation, the weather service reported. San Jose received about 1.75 inches of rain, while similar totals were measured in Mountain View and Palo Alto and slightly more than 2 inches fell over Fremont.
The highest totals came in the North Bay, where Mt. Tamalpais received 15.11 inches of rain over the last week, according to the weather service. More than 6 inches fell in Tiburon and Fairfax.
To the east, snow continued to fall over the Sierra, providing a direly-needed lift to Lake Tahoe-area ski resorts that had delayed their openings amid an unseasonably dry start to the season.
Several ski resorts reported another two feet of powder from early Christmas morning to just before dawn on Friday, according to Scott Rowe, another National Weather Service meteorologist. That latest dumping left Soda Springs with 72 inches of snow so far this week, while Kirkwood reported 59 inches of powder, and Bear Valley said it had received 58 inches of snow.
Borreal reported 47 inches of snow for the week as of early Friday morning, while 58 inches of snow had fallen at the summit of Palisades Tahoe.
Accessing those ski resorts remained difficult Friday. Caltrans continued to enforce chain controls over Interstate 80 over Donner Pass and Highway 50 over Echo Summit. Still, the new solid base layer of snow was a welcome sight.
Just a week ago, on Dec. 19, California’s statewide snowpack was at 12% of its seasonal average, with the state’s northern-most peaks registering just 4% of its normal snowpack total for that date, according to the California Department of Water Resources. Central California — including much of the Lake Tahoe region — also was at just 12% of average.
But as Friday, the state stood at 69% of its snowpack average for the day after Christmas, with northern California coming in at 44% of average and the Central Sierra reaching 73%. More snow was expected to continue falling Friday before easing off this weekend.
“We’ll take any snow at this point in time,” Scott said.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.
]]>Sebastopol police received a call shortly after 4 a.m. reporting a horse in or near the roadway in the area of Bodega Avenue and Pleasant Hill Road, according to Sgt. Cameron Fenske said.
An officer arrived on scene at around 4:15 a.m. and located the horse, Fenske said. The officer was able to contain the animal and keep it from wandering further until animal control arrived.
North Bay Animal Services were contacted at about 4:20 a.m. and arrived with a trailer around 6 a.m. to take custody of the horse, Fenske said.
Officer Josiah Wotillo assisted with containing the animal until it was safely removed from the area.
Heavy rain and strong winds battered the North Bay on Tuesday as forecasters warned of hazardous travel, flooding and damaging gusts through Thursday.
The horse’s owner later contacted police and was directed to North Bay Animal Services, Fenske said. No other reports of loose or escaped animals were received by Sebastopol police during that time.
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High winds and heavy rain Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day brought down trees, power lines, flooded roads and left thousands of North Bay residents without power for the holiday.
The storm system, the second in a row, swept across the North Bay late Wednesday into Thursday bringing periods of heavy rain, gusty winds, thunderstorms and even pockets of hail, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Dylan Flynn.
Downed powerlines, road closures and widespread power outages across Sonoma County disrupted Christmas morning for thousands of residents.
In Sebastopol, lighting struck a giant Redwood tree, shattering it to pieces just feet in front of Michael Valdovinos’ home.
Just before 8 a.m., Valdovinos said there was a loud explosion sound that shook the floors and walls of his home, prompting everyone in the home to either scream or freeze.
“It literally felt like a bomb went off,” he said.
His wife ran to the front door to find the massive redwood, which sat on their property 25 feet away from the home, splintering the tree into bits.
The explosion was caused by a lightning strike powerful enough to “pop the tree like a balloon,” Valdovinos said.
Debris littered the yard and knocked out power to their home. Debris also broke the piping to the well at the house, cutting off the water supply and throwing a wrench into their Christmas morning plans.
“Nature is absolutely incredible,” Valdovinos said. “We are still just kind of shook.”
As disruptive as the explosion was, Valdovinos said they feel lucky the home was not damaged more, adding that a massive piece of the tree missed the room where his daughter was asleep by only about an inch.
Firefighters removed debris from the roof and some off-duty firefighters even stopped by to witness the aftermath since it was such a rare occurrence, he said.
Power was eventually restored and the family was able to open presents and cook their holiday meal, but not before the delivery of a Christmas they will never forget.
By noon, nearly 14,000 PG&E customers remained without power with West County seeing the brunt of that.
Power was restored to nearly 4,000 customers by 3 p.m., leaving just under 10,000 customers still without power.
On Thursday night, a power line knocked down near Coffey Park left almost 9,000 PG&E customers in Santa Rosa without power. At 6:30 p.m., there was not estimated time for restoration, according to the PG&E outage map.
The Santa Rosa outage brought the total number of Sonoma County PG&E customers without power to more than 16,000.
Roads were closed across Sonoma County including in Forestville, Bodega Bay and Sebastopol. For a full list of closures, visit the county’s map at: roadclosures-sonomacounty.hub.arcgis.com/pages/full-listing.
In the last three days, Santa Rosa recorded 2 inches of rain, while Napa recorded nearly an inch and a half. In the coastal mountains, the weather service recorded rainfall totals of more than 5 inches, Flynn said.
Looking ahead, Flynn said the worst of the widespread, sustained wind is over but noted there is still a chance for strong or even severe thunderstorms through Friday.
Flynn said Thursday and Friday would be the “finale” of the weeklong weather.
A flood watch is in place through 10 p.m. Friday, though Flynn says the rainfall will likely not be enough to cause major flooding in creeks or the Russian River. Instead, the flood watch is primarily in effect for flash flooding which could happen in urban areas.
]]>But even the forecast of showers for late Thursday and Friday remains a threat to soaked communities across the region.
In Wrightwood, debris flows on Christmas Eve buried homes, turned roads into rivers and split asphalt in half. The storm was unlike any in recent memory, said resident Erin DeGroot.
“My husband has lived up here with his family his whole life and it is the worst damage he’s seen,” she said.
Her husband and son, along with community members, spent much of Christmas Eve setting up sandbags and other barriers to protect family members’ homes near Edna Street and Mill Road. They were able to save her husband’s parents’ home, but mudslides cut through a neighbor’s house, DeGroot said, leaving more than two feet of mud inside.
“It was so fast and intense, there was nothing he could do,” she said.
The San Bernardino Mountains got 10-12 inches of rain in 48 hours, meteorologists reported on Thursday afternoon.
Evacuation orders went out in Wrightwood on Wednesday, only to quickly shift into shelter-in-place orders as roadways turned impassable, she said. Her daughter, who works at a Starbucks down the mountain, was unable to return, DeGroot said.
Crews from San Bernardino County and Caltrans spent much of the day removing debris and reopening roads. Most of the businesses in town remained closed, either for the holiday or because of damage to their property. It left residents with few opportunities to resupply and anxious about what might be coming next.
“Resources that we would normally have to stock up and be ready for the next brunt are not here,” DeGroot said.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department announced that it had rescued over 100 people – with one helicopter hoisting 21 people from cars, and one engine pulling 20 people from vehicles.
The LAPD responded to more than 350 traffic accidents and the L.A. Fire Department deployed to three river rescues, officials said. There were no serious injuries or deaths related to the storm.
In Altadena, rainwater flooded the boutique Sidecca, destroying some of its merchandise, according to the store’s Instagram. The business, forced to close after the Eaton fire burned surrounding buildings, reopened in November. Owner Adriana Molina could not be reached for comment Thursday.
WRIGHTWOOD/DECEMBER STORMS INCIDENT
MORNING UPDATESan Bernardino County Fire remains in unified command with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
With a break in the weather this morning, crews were strategically placed in neighborhoods that were severely impacted by the… pic.twitter.com/CQbXnviLYY— San Bernardino County Fire (@SBCOUNTYFIRE) December 25, 2025
Forecasts on Thursday afternoon indicated the worst of the storm had passed, though risks remained in water-damaged mountain communities, said Chandler Price, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“Today, it’s going to be pretty quiet,” Price said on Christmas afternoon. “Coastal Orange County and the West San Bernardino Mountains could see some light showers.”
Evacuation warnings were still in place into Thursday evening for Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre, as well as for Wrightwood and Lytle Creek.
“Since the soils are all wet, they’re going to hold less moisture than they usually can,” Price said, “which means it’s going to run off easier, which leads to our elevated flooding concerns.”
Showers and increased winds are expected across Orange County and the Inland Empire beginning early Friday morning. While most of the region will see calmer weather, the San Bernardino Mountains will continue to have a flood advisory with a total of an additional 2-2.5 inches in the area on Friday.
The potential for flooding also will remain high through Friday in parts of Los Angeles County, according to an NWS forecast discussion. The rainfall should be less than what was seen on Wednesday, but flooding, debris flow and storm damage risks remain high because of the already water-logged landscape, the meteorologists said.
Price urged those living in mountain areas to stay off the roads.
“Yesterday’s weather was significant,” he said. “While tomorrow will be more typical for this kind of weather event, infrastructure has been saturated, creating safety risks.”
Coastal Orange County saw light showers on Christmas Day, with heavier rains expected to hit northwest Orange County early Friday morning. Showers should be on and off for the rest of the day. The county could get an additional 1-1.5 inches of rain, according to the NWS. Heavy floods are unlikely in the area, Price said, but nuisance flooding could occur in urban settings.
The showers are expected to dissipate around Southern California by late Friday evening with dry, warmer weather returning this weekend and lasting through the middle of next week.
On Wednesday, the first wave of a dangerous atmospheric river storm dumped torrential rain, with widespread debris flows and freeway flooding. Cars got stuck on washed-out roads. Evacuation warnings and orders were in effect in vulnerable areas, including those near wildfire burn scars.
That day, the entire community of Wrightwood – 5,000 customers – lost power, Southern California Edison reported. On Thursday, 2,900 still had no electricity.
Three different SCE substations in the Wrightwood area were compromised, according to Scott Johnson, an SCE spokesperson. And many of those residents will have to remain without power for a while longer.
Johnson said the damage to infrastructure was significant, with equipment being completely washed away, and because of severe flooding, the crews cannot get to the substations to repair them.
“The challenging part for Edison, as is the case for any of the first responders and the individuals attempting to resolve this, is that the roads themselves are currently impassable,” Johnson said.
San Bernardino County firefighters said they rescued people trapped in cars when mud and debris rushed down a road leading into Wrightwood.
“San Bernardino County Fire is devastated that many families are unable to be home together this Christmas due to the ongoing impacts of this incident,” the fire department said in a Dec. 24 post on X. “Our hearts are with everyone affected, and our crews remain committed to supporting the community during this difficult time.”
Fourteen visitors were stranded in Mt. Baldy overnight because of the road closure, said Graham Hendrickson, fire chief for the Mt. Baldy Fire Department. However, the Mt. Baldy firefighters opened their homes to those stranded, he said, allowing the visitors to spend the holidays with their families.
DeGroot said the storm has been a good reminder to “be prepared at all times whenever you live in this type of environment, especially with climate change and recent fires.”
She added, “We’re never out of the woods, literally and metaphorically.”
But, she said, “I see neighbors helping neighbors and I think that is one of the special things about Wrightwood, we all look out for each other in these types of situations.”
With multiple roadways flooded, residents are advised to stay off roads to ensure access for emergency crews if needed. For those whose homes have been damaged or do not have an area to shelter in place, the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds are open to the community, including to both large and small animals. The Red Cross is staffing the shelter.
Residents can check the evacuation status of their neighborhoods at protect.genasys.com.
While freeways and some other roads around Southern California were reopened late Wednesday, Mt. Baldy Road at Shin Road remained closed except to residents on Christmas morning because of slides, said California Highway Patrol Officer Sergio Garcia. Mud could be seen falling around trees and blocking the roadway.
There were two major debris flows on the road, Hendrickson said, and as of Thursday afternoon, one had been cleared and road crews were working on the other.
Additional closures in the San Bernardino Mountains on Thursday morning included Lytle Creek Road at Glen Helen Parkway and the full closure of all lanes on Highway 2 for 12 miles west of Highway 39.
Rainfall totals almost doubled in some cases since the beginning of the storm.
Here are some 48-hour rainfall totals as of Thursday, according to the NWS:
LA County:
San Gabriel mountains: 8-10 inches
The San Gabriel Valley: 3-4 inches
San Fernando Valley: 4-5 inches
Santa Monica mountains: 2-4 inches
La Cañada foothills: 3-4 inches
Orange County:
Dana Point: 1.06-1.33 inches
Huntington Beach: 1.39-1.56 inches
Laguna Beach: 0.96 inches
Santa Ana mountains: 1-73-3 inches
Inland Empire:
Riverside: 0.64-0.68 inches
Chino: 1.85-2.67 inches
Big Bear Lake: 3.12-4.67 inches
Cajon Pass: 8.51 inches
San Bernardino: 0.96-1.06 inches
San Bernardino mountains: 10.5-12.32 inches
City News Service contributed to this report.
]]>The service reported that a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was 7 miles south of Santa Cruz at a speed of 35 mph.
The areas impacted include Santa Cruz, Corralitos, Scotts Valley, Capitola, Live Oak, Soquel, Twin Lakes, Opal Cliffs, Felton, Aptos, Ben Lomond, Rio Del Mar, Eureka Canyon Road, Boulder Creek, Day Valley, Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley and Aptos Hills-Larkin.
Residents in those areas were encouraged to move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a well-built building away from windows. For people outside, in a mobile home or in a vehicle, the agency recommended relocating to the closest substantial shelter.
“Flying debris will be dangerous to those caught without shelter,” the agency said in its advisory. “Mobile homes will be damaged or destroyed. Damage to roofs, windows and vehicles will occur. Tree damage is likely.”
]]>On Christmas morning, PG&E reported that over 65,173 customers were without power, including more than 17,000 in the peninsula, 16,000 in the South Bay and 6,700 in the East Bay.
However, the utility company had made significant progress in restoring power to some customers by the afternoon.
As of 1 p.m., 3,998 customers in Santa Clara County remained impacted, with around 40% of the outages located in Morgan Hill. In Alameda County, only 656 customers remained impacted, while 7,853 customers were still without power in San Mateo County.
The weather-related outages come on the heels of a large-scale outage on Wednesday caused by a fire at a Saratoga substation, which was resolved. San Francisco also experienced a multi-day blackout recently after a fire at a substation in its South of Market District left hundreds of thousands of customers without power.
Early Christmas morning, a line of severe thunderstorms moved into Northern California with wind gusts in excess of 70 mph, setting off flash flooding in the San Francisco metro. More storms were likely into Thursday afternoon and evening.
A tornado warning was issued for Santa Cruz County until 1 p.m. by the National Weather Service as a severe thunderstorm moved through the area.
Bay Area roadways have also been severely impacted as a result of flooding, leading to several crashes.
On Thursday morning, a gas tanker overturned on Highway 101 in San Jose, closing the southbound lanes until late afternoon and early evening.
A “moderate” Level 3 of 4 risk of excessive rainfall is in effect for much of Southern California, including Los Angeles, as several more inches of rain are expected in the mountains north of the city and another 2 to 4 inches of rain in the city. Urban areas could see flooding into the evening.
Wednesday’s potent storm brought 5 to more than 10 inches of rain to Southern California’s mountains and 2 to 5 inches in lower elevations. While rainfall Thursday and Friday will be less than that, any new rain could result in flooding because the ground is already saturated.
In the hard-hit community of Wrightwood in San Bernardino County, shelter-in-place and evacuation orders are still in effect, with authorities telling residents not to venture onto area roadways following flooding and debris flows.
Mudslides, rock slides and debris flows are again a threat on Christmas Day, particularly in areas where burn scars are present from recent wildfires. The scorched ground of these scars repels water instead of absorbing it, quickly turning rain into a surge of floodwater that pulls mud and debris with it.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Shasta counties Wednesday to mobilize resources. The city of Los Angeles also declared a local emergency Wednesday evening to ensure departments “have the required resources in the days ahead,” Mayor Karen Bass said.
Here’s the latest:
- Severe thunderstorms slam San Francisco: Flash flood warnings were issued Thursday morning in the San Francisco Bay area as unusually potent thunderstorms packing damaging winds and torrential rainfall moved through the region. San Francisco International Airport recorded a wind gust of 72 mph, and numerous gusts to 80 and 90 mph occurred in higher elevations, according to the NWS. Emergency officials received several reports of property damage due to winds, downed trees and flooding, but “no reports of significant storm related injuries,” San Francisco Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Jackie Thornhill told CNN. More thunderstorms are forecast to affect this region later Christmas Day and any storms that turn severe could produce damaging wind gusts or a brief tornado.
- Two dead in weather-related incidents: A Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy crashed and died on a wet roadway south of Sacramento just before 6 a.m. Wednesday, the state highway patrol told CNN. “The vehicle was traveling at an unsafe speed and the driver lost control” and hit a metal power pole, Officer Michael Harper said in a statement. Heavy rainfall had occurred at 5 a.m. and light rain was in the area at the time. In San Diego, a 61-year-old man died Wednesday when a large portion of a tree fell on him. High winds were blowing in the area at the time, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Capt. Jason Shanley.
- Chain controls in effect for I-80: The snowy side of this storm is in high gear in the Sierra Nevada, where several feet are expected to pile up. Chain controls are in effect for Interstate 80, which means chains or traction devices are required on all vehicles except those with four-wheel or all-wheel drive that also have snow-tread tires.
- Flooding rain risk continues: About 8 million people in portions of Southern California are in the moderate-risk zone on Christmas Day, according to the Weather Prediction Center. This includes Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. More than a dozen flash flood warnings were issued Wednesday in Southern California, and flood warnings remained in effect for parts of the region on Christmas Day.
- Rescues in mountain resort community: Emergency crews pulled people from flooded cars and homes in Wrightwood, a community in the San Gabriel Mountains about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, amid dangerous flooding and debris flows. Some residents had to be rescued from rooftops by helicopter, according to fire officials, who told CNN they don’t yet have a tally of rescues, citing the “very dynamic” situation. Roughly 120 emergency personnel were working through the night to continue assisting residents, San Bernardino County Fire said.
- Widespread power outages: More than 165,000 homes and businesses were in the dark early Christmas morning, according to poweroutage.us.
Impossible travel conditions in the mountains
Feet of snow falling in the Sierra Nevada are making travel there difficult or impossible at times, and these conditions will continue through Friday. That includes Interstate 80 through Donner Pass.
During the past 48 hours, through early Christmas morning, Heavenly ski resort had picked up 28 inches of snow, while Northstar reported 38 inches of new snow and Kirkwood 33 inches. More snow continues to fall in the Lake Tahoe region. The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab received 23.6 inches in 24 hours, with another 2 to 3 feet expected.
It’s causing weather whiplash for the region, which has had much less snow than usual to start the season. The Sierra Avalanche Center and Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center have issued a Backcountry Avalanche Warning for the greater Tahoe region and eastern Sierra in Mono County through early Friday morning, warning widespread areas of unstable snow are likely due to the heavy snowfall and strong winds.
Risk stretches into Friday
All told, rainfall totals in Southern California through the end of the week could be as much as 4 to 7 inches in coastal and valley locations, while foothills and mountains see 6 to 14 inches.
To put those totals into perspective, a city like Los Angeles could see anywhere from two months’ worth of rain to nearly half a year’s worth in just a week.
Los Angeles has already seen a typical December’s amount of rain following Wednesday’s storm.
Some relief from this nonstop stormy pattern looks to finally arrive for the upcoming weekend.
The-CNN-Wire
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Around 5:10 a.m., the California Highway Patrol said two southbound lanes of Highway 87 north of Highway 85 were flooded, creating risky driving conditions.
Drivers were advised to seek alternate routes or use caution since the water on the roadway can be difficult to see and may cause vehicles to lose control.
Forecasters have warned of flash flooding across the Bay Area, especially on roads, low-lying areas, and near creeks, with rain falling at high rates into Thursday. A Flood Watch remains in effect across much of the region.
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CONTACT: CHP Officer Ross Lee (408) 655-2620 or rosslee@chp.ca.gov
]]>About 16,500 customers were affected by a power outage caused by a fire at a Pacific Gas & Electric substation in Saratoga on Wednesday morning.
A utility company spokeswoman said they received reports of a fire at the substation around 8:25 a.m. Wednesday. Santa Clara County Fire personnel responded to make sure surrounding community and PG&E employees were safe.
The fire was isolated to a certain area of the substation and ended up extinguishing by itself, so no fire suppression efforts occurred. The PG&E spokeswoman said that they were able to restore power for a majority of customers within the first hour of the outage. Power has since between restored for all customers.
The spokeswoman said equipment failure caused the fire, but the cause for the equipment failure is under investigation.
PG&E used the time between the storm Tuesday night and Wednesday night to send crews to areas that would be impacted by the weather with enough equipment to restore power and respond to any outages quickly and safely.
“Even though it’s the holidays, we know that it’s very important for families to have power to be able to celebrate, and that’s why we make sure that we have staff working,” the PG&E spokeswoman said.
However, storm-related power outages still affected fewer than 3,000 customers in Los Gatos, Sunnyvale and Saratoga on Wednesday. The causes of these power outages included downed trees taking out wires or broken poles. The extent of the damage creates a disparity in how long it takes to restore power.
Tod Rathbone, 63, who is visiting the Bay Area from New York City, said he woke up Wednesday morning to the power outage at his mother-in-law’s house. He said their power was restored between 12:30 p.m. or 1 p.m.
In San Francisco, a blackout on Saturday affected 125,000 customers, according to Mission Local. Power was restored on Tuesday.
]]>The child went to the hospital as a precaution, said Cyndi Foreman, division chief fire marshal with the Sonoma County Fire District.
Theirs was one of two homes damaged by the fallen tree in the 17000 block of Highway 116. Neither home is now occupiable.
Three vehicles also were destroyed by the large tree, which also downed power lines.
Emergency crews say trees fell across Sonoma County overnight due to the high winds. It was not immediately clear if other homes were damaged.
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