A powerful Alaskan storm swept across California on Tuesday,
flooding homes in San Francisco, cutting power to thousands and
leading to what could be a record-breaking rainfall for
October.
A powerful Alaskan storm swept across California on Tuesday, flooding homes in San Francisco, cutting power to thousands and leading to what could be a record-breaking rainfall for October.
Many Sierra ski resorts were reporting their earliest openings in years, receiving a foot of snow since early Tuesday morning. That was on top of a base that already was two to three feet deep after a surprise storm last week.
Gilroy’s rain total for Tuesday was 1.05 inches, bringing the seasonal total to 3.83 inches, said Rick Canepa of the National Weather Service in Monterey.
“It’s safe to say that’s above normal,” Canepa said. “Usually we’re still in an offshore flow in October, with warm temperatures and dry weather.”
Today’s forecast for Gilroy calls for highs in the mid-60s and lows in the mid-40s, with a chance of showers and north winds at 5 to 15 mph. There is a slight chance for more showers tonight, and Thursday will be partly cloudy and dry. The dry weather should last through the weekend, Canepa said.
Gilroy resident Gail Montoya said she heard the heavy rain and wind slapping her window early Tuesday morning – something she said she might expect later on into wet season, but not in October.
“When I woke up, I thought to myself, ‘Is that rain? No, that can’t be rain. Is that rain?’ and then went right back to sleep,” she said. “Turns out, yep, it was rain.”
Although the weather cleared briefly Tuesday afternoon, a Gilroy High School tennis match at Live Oak High School, scheduled for 3:30pm Tuesday, was canceled.
The storm is expected to linger through Thursday, dropping several inches of rain across the state and up two feet or more of snow in the mountains.
The storm also flooded freeway lanes throughout the San Francisco Bay area and contributed to a clogged morning commute that included a toppled big rig on Interstate 880 in San Leandro. Power was cut to thousands of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers.
The storm was adding to an already impressive early season snowpack in the 400-mile-long Sierra Nevada. Much of the higher elevations had received a foot of fresh snow since early Tuesday morning, with more on the way. Mammoth Mountain in the Eastern Sierra was reporting a total of six feet of snow at the resort’s 11,053-foot peak.
Lifts began operating Thursday, the resort’s earliest opening since 1994, spokeswoman Joani Lynch said. She described it as “one of those quiet, big fluffy-flake storms.”
The storm helped push rainfall totals well above average for this time of year and could set records throughout the state, said meteorologist Mark Strobin of the National Weather Service office in Monterey.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
