Extreme weather takes aim at Sierra
Excessive snow to snarl traffic on holiday weekend
Within 24 hours of clearing her deck of snow, Celeste Sales was back outside her Truckee home plowing through 3 feet of snow. As soon as she put her shovel away, the snow started falling again.
It didn’t come as a surprise, but she thought it might to others.
“I know it’s a holiday weekend and people want fresh powder and it’s so awesome. People think they can handle it but, seriously, tell people not to come up,” Sales said Friday. “It’s very dangerous. Just don’t even try. Just wait until it clears up.”
Extreme snow conditions were expected to bring several feet of snow to the Sierra this weekend to
“The high winds are kicking up the snow and it’s basically making a wall of white. So, if you were driving on the highway, you wouldn’t really be able to see what is in front of you.”
Celeste Sales, Truckee resident
shut down highways and ruin ski trips planned for the threeday weekend and midwinter break many schools give their students.
Interstate 80 was temporarily shut down Friday and reopened in the evening because of whiteout conditions caused by high winds and heavy snow, said Raquel Borrayo, a spokeswoman for Caltrans.
“The high winds are kicking up the snow, and it’s basically making a wall of white,” she said. “So if you were driving on the highway, you wouldn’t really be able to see what is in front of you.”
Sales, 49, said she took her husky, Smokey, for a walk Friday morning and the snow was already knee-deep. Later that morning, she received a message from the Truckee Police Department that her street could be closed through the weekend.
“I was like, ‘I’ve never been snowed in before,’ ” Sales said, laughing.
Some locations in the Sierra, including Boreal Mountain Resort and Soda Springs Mountain Resort, had already received 3 feet of snow by Friday, said Brendon RubinOster, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Forecasters expect up to 3 more feet of snow to fall around the Lake Tahoe basin before the storm moves out Sunday afternoon. Elevations above 7,000 feet could receive close to 6 feet by the time skies clear.
At Pete ’n Peters, a sports bar overlooking Lake Tahoe, thirsty patrons found solace from the freezing, relentless onslaught outside Friday night in glasses of beer and games of shuffleboard and pool, said Duke Eberle, the bar’s bartender.
“It’s blanketed out there, and the weather doesn’t stop people from drinking,” Eberle told The Chronicle, raising his voice to be heard over boisterous laughing all around him. “There are no sports games tonight, but it’s still busy and the snow just keeps comin’ and comin’.”
Highway 50 to Lake Tahoe remained open Friday, but Borrayo warned that drivers should expect slow going.
A winter storm warning will remain in effect for the Sierra region until Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
The snow in the Sierra is the effect of an atmospheric river that battered the Bay Area this week. Forecasters called it the strongest storm of the season and its impact continued to be felt across the Bay Area on Friday.
Here are some of the biggest problems — and a bit of good news — brought by the storm:
Water totals
As of Friday, many Bay Area cities were above 100 percent of total rainfall for both the water year that starts Oct. 1 and the calendar year, said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
By Friday morning, San Francisco had received a total of 3.8 inches of rain in 72 hours, bringing its total to 17.49 inches for the water year. The rain brought the city to 112 percent of normal for the water year and 170 percent of normal since Jan. 1.
Santa Rosa has received a total of 26.03 inches of rain since Oct. 1. The normal rainfall for that time period is 23.80 inches, bringing the city to 109 percent of average.
“They’re right up there on par with San Francisco,” Gass said, adding that Santa Rosa is at 163 percent of normal for the calendar year.
Oakland isn’t far behind Santa Rosa and San Francisco, according to weather service records. By Friday, the city had more than 3 inches of precipitation with the latest atmospheric river. Its total for the water year is 13.41 inches, compared with its normal amount of 13.06 inches. The figures bring Oakland to 103 percent of normal. The city stands at 145 percent of normal for the calendar year.
“We are doing pretty good, especially because we had a little bit of a dry start,” Gass said. “October was a little below average, and I even think November was.”
Scattered showers and cooler temperatures will continue to bedevil the Bay Area until a dry period begins Monday, officials said.
Temperatures throughout the region should be in the high 40s and low 50s, but a colder front next week could bring a slight dusting of snow to elevations as low as 3,000 feet.
Traffic
All lanes on Highway 37 remained closed Friday between Atherton Avenue and Highway 101 due to flooding that occurred in Novato after a levee breached the prior day.
The California Highway Patrol said that it is impossible to predict when the lanes will reopen, because water levels were continuing to rise.
In San Francisco, the southbound lanes of the Great Highway remained closed due to flooding from the storm.
Power
As of Friday night, 2,465 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers were without power around the region. The majority of the reported outages were in the North Bay and along the Peninsula, PG&E spokesman J.D. Guidi said.
In the North Bay, 1,185 customers were without electricity and 716 customers were in the dark in the Peninsula.
Karna Hazelhoff was one of many people dealing with a power outage during the height of the storm.
Lights in the 59-year-old Daly City resident’s house flickered off at 4:22 a.m. Thursday and didn’t come back on for 24 hours, she said.
“I’m dealing with rotten food,” Hazelhoff said. “It was so cold in the house without heat all night, didn’t sleep well at all.”
Air travel
After nearly 900 flights were delayed or canceled at San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday and Thursday, the region’s busiest airport continued to have weather-related issues with 475 delays and 25 cancellations as of Friday afternoon, airport duty manager Maria Buyco said.
Mineta San Jose International Airport reported three cancellations of outbound flights due to weather in other regions.
Officials at Oakland International Airport said there were no delays or cancellations there.
Chronicle staff writers Ashley McBride and Lauren Hernandez contributed to this report.
Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani