After thunderstorms and hail, snow could be on the way

One of the wildest winters in years added a new jolt of excitement to the Bay Area this weekend: thunderstorms.

Not to mention hail and gusty winds. And, yes, a winter weather advisory with more snow forecast for today in the east foothills and mountains from the North Bay into Santa Clara County.

“This active weather pattern that we're seeing is not going away — winter is not done with us,” said David King a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Bay Area.

On Saturday, a brief spell of scattered thunder, lightning and pea-sized hail passed over the region from the East Bay to the Peninsula and up to the Sonoma Coast. A second front was expected to arrive by this morning, ushering in up to 60 mph wind gusts and snow at elevations as low as 1,500 feet in parts of the North Bay and 2,000 feet in much of the East Bay and South Bay.

In response, the National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory for the North Bay interior mountains, East Bay hills and Santa Clara hills — cautioning residents of downed trees, power outages and low visibility on roadways during snow showers.

Despite the warnings, King said forecasters aren't expecting the same level of snowfall that on Feb. 24 blanketed many lower-elevation parts of the region with the most significant snowfall since 2011.

“This isn't nearly the kind of system that we saw last week,” King said.

Still, the North Bay could see up to 10 inches of snow this weekend, while other areas could see 2 to 5 inches. Weekend rainfall totals, meanwhile, were forecast to reach about a halfinch for most of the Bay Area and up to 1.75 inches in the mountains along the coast and in the North Bay.

Experts said the storm was driven by the latest blast of unstable air, the same phenomenon that has sent storm after storm over the Bay Area since the beginning of the year. Looking ahead to early this week, forecasters are monitoring the chances of more rain and snow and overnight temperatures dropping below freezing in many inland areas.

In the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a heavy storm was expected to dump up to 3 to 5 feet of snow in the Tahoe area. That would add significantly to the area's three-decade-high snowpack this winter. On Saturday, the statewide snowpack was at 190% of normal for this time of year.

By Saturday afternoon, sections of Interstate 80 were closed eastbound near Colfax in the foothills and westbound outside of Truckee near Donner Pass. With snow anticipated to fall at elevations as low as 1,000 feet in much of the northern part of the state, Highway 50 and I-5 were also expected to be affected.

Cory Mueller, a meteorologist with the weather service in Sacramento, said anyone thinking of driving up to the ski mountains the next few days should prepare for delays and could end up stranded on the highway.

“The advice for this weekend would be don't go,” Mueller said.