Third California storm in a week brings rain, snow and hopes for more El Niño

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/13/california-third-storm-weather-snow-rain-el-nino

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A third winter-like storm in a week brought rain and strong winds to much of northern California and snow to the Sierra Nevada on Sunday.

Sheets of pouring rain made for treacherous driving and one person was injured in an accident on Highway 101 that blocked all lanes near San Rafael, north of San Francisco, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) said.

Forecasters said showers and thunderstorms were expected throughout the day, and officials were reminding residents to drive slowly, saying there was debris and flooding on the freeways.

The CHP said it was handling several collisions in the San Francisco Bay Area.

After a lull on Saturday, the system moved into parched California overnight packing precipitation, strong winds, lightening and some hail.

The latest storm will dump slightly less rain in the state than the previous systems – with the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley expected to get up to about half an inch, National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Nathan Owen said.

“We’ll see a very similar storm to what we had the last round with less rain, but we’re expecting a good bit of wind for this system,” he said.

The NWS issued a strong wind advisory for the San Francisco Bay Area that was to stay in effect through Sunday night, saying wind with gusts of 40mph to 50mph were forecast for the area. The NWS also warned that dry trees could topple and bring down power lines.

“Driving may be difficult, especially for high profile vehicles,” it said.

Central California could also see winds gusting up to 55mph and higher peaks in the Sierra Nevada could see up to 2ft of snow, the NWS said.

In southern California, chains were required Saturday on several roads leading to the Bear Mountain and Snow Summit resorts after several inches of snow fell on the San Bernardino Mountains.

A storm on Friday dropped 6in at higher elevations and brought rain, hail and thunderstorms elsewhere.

The NWS said daytime temperatures in the mountains would stay in the 30sF through the weekend and that more snow was expected before Monday.

The southern California coast remained under a high surf advisory through Sunday, with unpredictable waves topping 10ft.

Forecasters have said a strong El Niño weather system could drench drought-hit California and other parts of the west in the coming months.

However, Johnny Burg, a meteorologist with the NWS in Seattle, said he did not believe the latest storms were related to El Niño, a warming in the Pacific Ocean that can alter weather worldwide.