A powerful winter storm closed in on the Bay Area and the Sierra Nevada on Thursday, promising havoc in the areas with rain and bringing warnings from authorities not to even think about messing around with the snow.
The storm is expected to bring at least 1½ inches of rain to much of the Bay Area, and perhaps totals in excess of 2 inches in the North Bay and coastal ranges, according to the National Weather Service. The full onslaught for the first showers to reach the region was expected Thursday afternoon or evening.
“We’ve got the cold front knocking on the North Bay’s door,” meteorologist Dalton Behringer said Thursday afternoon. “It’s gonna come on in and then cover the whole region.”
Some rain fell early Thursday, but barely any of it was measurable by noon. Up to one-tenth of an inch fell in Marin County and areas of the Peninsula saw about five-hundredths of an inch.
But more was coming.
“After (the main band) goes through (Thursday), we will have scattered showers into Friday,” Behringer said. ” Then on Friday, we’re going to get another heavier push.”
The weather service issued a wind advisory to go into effect at noon Friday that will last until 10 a.m. Saturday. That advisory covers the North Bay interior mountains and the coastal ranges, as well as San Francisco, Behringer said. Wind gusts may exceed 40 mph in those places, according to the weather service.
Weather forecasters also expect at least 5 to 12 feet of snow to fall above 5,000 feet. Authorities urged anyone not already in the mountains not to go and said roads and highways are likely to be shut down.
A blizzard warning issued Tuesday for the Northern and Central Sierra Nevada went into effect at 4 a.m. Thursday and was set to last until 10 a.m. Sunday. The warning affects Lassen and Shasta counties, as well as Lake Tahoe to Tuolumne and Mono counties near Yosemite National Park.
PG&E in a statement said it was pre-staging crews and materials to tackle power outages that the storm may bring and that they are prepared to use helicopters, snowcats and vehicles with four-wheel drive to gain access to areas that need repair. Still, they said customers in remote areas “should prepare for extended outages given the unique circumstances of this storm.”
Early Thursday, widespread power outages affected the west San Jose and Campbell areas from south of Interstate 280 in the Meridian area over to south of I-280 at Bascom and south. Power also went out at one business corner of Hamilton Avenue and Bascom Avenue.
Power outages in Woodside, Redwood City and Campbell also had up to 500 customers in the dark in each of those stories, according to the utility.
The storms have been generated by a large low-pressure system that’s descending from the Gulf of Alaska and bringing cold air with it. Low temperatures are expected to dip daily until they go into the 30s in most places in the East Bay by Saturday night into Sunday morning.
Temperatures are expected to bottom out in the low 40s in San Jose.
The storm also is expected to bring wind gusts that could get as high as 40 mph. A high-surf advisory also is likely, according to the weather service.
