A powerful late-season Pacific storm brought damaging winds and more rain and snow to saturated California on Tuesday as the first full day of spring showed little change from the state’s unusual winter.
The storm focused most of its energy on the central and southern portions of the state, causing severe runoff threats and snowfall on mountains that forecasters said would be measured in feet. In the north, severe hail was reported in Sacramento, the state capital.
Downed trees and power lines were reported in the San Francisco Bay Area. An Amtrak commuter train carrying 55 passengers hit a fallen tree and derailed near the East Bay village of Porta Costa. Fire officials said the train remained upright and no one was hurt.
The California Highway Patrol said a man driving a sewage truck was killed in the Bay Area in Portola Valley when a tree fell on the vehicle.
In the Monterey Bay area, a severe windstorm located over the ocean struck Santa Cruz County with wind gusts up to 80 mph (129 km/h) around midday. Along the coast of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, ocean foam burst across the roads like great snowflakes.
Wind gusts reached 76 mph (122 km/h) in the communities of the Santa Cruz Mountains, including Boulder Creek.
Resident Frank Kohr waited for hours Tuesday afternoon at a downtown supermarket for crews to remove the large redwoods that were blocking the highway. “Trees fell everywhere,” Kohr said. “The wind was unbelievable. Branches were blowing through the air, and people could hear the trees falling and cracking.”
“That’s Doozy,” Kohr said.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
And according to PowerOutage.us, there were about 210,000 customers without power across the state, mostly in the area south of San Francisco.
The National Weather Service said the storm is a low pressure system in the Pacific Ocean interacting with the California XII system atmospheric river Since late December.
California’s unexpected wet-weather siege after years of drought included February blizzards boosted by Arctic air.
The storms caused floods and snow covered mountains, breaking off roofs and crews struggled to keep the highways avalanche-free.
Mammoth Mountain Resort in the eastern Sierra Nevada has announced that it will remain open for skiing and snowboarding at least through the end of July.
With 634 inches (16.1 m) of snowfall to date at the main lodge, it’s likely one storm away from breaking the all-time record of 668 inches (16.9 m) set in the 2010-2011 season.
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