So, besides all that funky weather — quake!
Torrential downpours, snow, hail, thunder and lightning strikes reported throughout the region
MONTEREY >> The work week got off to an apocalyptic start in the Bay Area with torrential downpours, hail, snow, thunder, lightning strikes and even an earthquake reported in the region.
The magnitude 3.9 quake struck at 9:40 a.m. 9 miles northeast of downtown San Jose, in the Alum Rock area and caused high-rises to rock back and forth. The jolt also was felt in Santa Clara, Fremont and Milpitas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“It was snowing and hailing, with thunder, then there was an earth-
quake. It felt like a big jerk, not rolling,” said Angel Barlow, park services attendant at Joseph D. Grant County Park, in the hills east of San Jose. “It was a landslide of weather!”
At least an inch of snow fell on Mount Hamilton in the South Bay, according to employees at the Lick Observatory. It’s unusual but not unheard of for snow to fall on Bay Area peaks this time of year, said Ryan Walbrun, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey.
“We get these last gasps of winter that drop down from Canada,” he said.
In Oakland, the hail was so heavy some compared it to snowfall. It caused vehicles to slide off roadways and forced the temporary closure of streets, including Redwood Road near Highway 13.
San Jose also saw a smattering of hail and heavy rain.
Lightning strikes rounded out the panoply of precipitation. At about 9:30 a.m., the pilot of a private jet reported the inbound aircraft “may have been struck by lightning” roughly 5 miles west of Mineta San Jose International Airport, said airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes. The Dassault Falcon 2000 landed safely afterward.
As of 5:15 p.m. Monday, 24-hour rainfall totals included 0.46 inches in Napa, 0.32 inches in Santa Rosa, 0.30 inches in Livermore, 0.22 inches in San Francisco and San Jose, 0.20 inches in Concord and 0.04 inches in Oakland, according to the weather service.
The wet weather is expected to give way to sunny skies today, but another round of rain is in store. Brian Mejia, a meteorologist with the weather service, said a quick-moving system will arrive late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning and deliver a tenth of an inch to urban areas and half an inch to coastal mountain ranges.
“It’s a quick hitter,” he said.
Experts say there is no such thing as “earthquake weather.” Statistically, there is about an equal distribution of quakes in any weather. That theory had its origins in the 4th century B.C., when Aristotle proposed that quakes were caused by winds trapped in subterranean caves, but it has long since been disproved.
The cause of Monday’s quake is well-known, and for this jolt, it’s the Calaveras Fault, which routinely releases stress caused by the earth’s shifting continental plates. It extends from just south of Walnut Creek to south of Hollister, where it joins with the San Andreas Fault.
Last December, another magnitude 3.9 earthquake hit the Alum Rock area, following a 4.1 in the same spot in October. According to the USGS, it is not unusual for the fault to have magnitude 4 quakes, which are disconcerting, but unlikely to damage structures.
Before that, a magnitude 5.4 earthquake hit near Alum Rock in 2007.
Activity along the Calaveras Fault gets close attention because it has a high degree of rupturing in a large magnitude quake — one exceeding 6.7 — over the next 30 years. There’s a 26 percent chance of that event, trailed only by the nearby Hayward-Rogers Creek Fault, which runs through the heart of East Bay cities and has a 31 percent chance of rupturing.
The Hayward section of the fault runs from near Mount Misery, east of San Jose, north to San Pablo Bay. The Rodgers Creek portion picks up from there and runs north to Santa Rosa.