Bay Area, mountains hit with hazardous cold front

A cold front slammed into Northern California on Sunday, bringing dangerous temperatures for homeless people in the Bay Area and a winter storm in the Sierra that may snarl weekend travel.

Moisture moved in before the cold, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brayden Murdock. Although the Bay Area will see little to no precipitation, a winter storm hit the mountains around 4 a.m. Sunday.

The system is expected to bring 3 to 8 inches of snow and up to 60 mph winds in northern Sierra Nevada counties, including Interstate 80 over Donner Pass and Highway 50 over Echo Summit, until 7 p.m. Sunday.

The cold front was to then sweep in from the north later Sunday, plunging temperatures to the single digits and even below zero along the California-Nevada border and near freezing in the

Bay Area, Murdock said.

On Sunday night, San Francisco was expected to see the temperature drop to 38 degrees, San Jose and Napa 34, Concord and Santa Rosa 32 and Livermore down to 30, the national weather service said.

Temperatures are expected to stay cold at night until Wednesday morning.

Murdock said the frigid temperatures expected in the mountains are fairly normal, but the predictions in the Bay Area are unusually low compared with historical averages.

Coastal areas in Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco and the Peninsula will be under a frost advisory from midnight to 9 a.m. Monday.

Inland areas, including mountains and valleys in the North Bay, could see temperatures drop below zero, accompanied by 15 to 25 mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph. The weather service issued a freeze warning for those areas from midnight through 9 a.m. Monday and a wind warning from 1 p.m. Sunday to 1 p.m. Monday.

“It’s rare enough for us to actually see freezing temperatures that are widespread,” Murdock said.

San Jose, Livermore and Oakland typically see temperatures in the lower 40s around this time of year, while San Francisco usually falls into the mid-40s, he said.

Frost and freeze could kill crops, other vegetation and damage outdoor plumbing, the weather service warned. Gusty winds can blow around unsecured objects or tree limbs, causing power failures.

Forecasters urged the public to protect people, pets, plants and pipes from the cold, and noted that frigid temperatures are particularly hazardous for people who have no shelter.