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A once-every-decade snow fall hit the Bay Area on Tuesday with snow levels as low as 1,200 feet, sending families to the region’s mountains for a rare opportunity to build a snowman or enjoy a snowball fight.
The last time the Bay Area experienced a winter storm with snow levels as low was February, 2011, according to the National Weather Service.
“That one eight years ago was a bit more significant than this one,” said Drew Peterson, a meteorologist with the weather service in Monterey. “Still, we don’t get this very often. There’s a lot of excitement here at the office, and around the area.”
Steady winter storms continued to pile up snow in the Sierra Nevada. All roads in and out of Yosemite National Park were closed Tuesday due to snow and fallen trees.
“We’ve had incidents throughout the park,” said Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman, who noted that park officials hoped to have at least one road open by Wednesday morning. “We’ve had trees come down. We’ve had vehicles slide off the road. Power is out at Wawona.”
The storms were a bounty for the ski industry. From Friday to Tuesday afternoon, Lake Tahoe-area ski resorts received up to 7 feet of new snow. Another 1 to 3 feet is forecast for this weekend.
“It’s absolutely amazing. I haven’t seen a snow storm like this in over a decade,” said Tahoe resident Kevin Cooper, who hosts outdoor shows on Tahoe TV and Outdoor TV. “It’s light, it’s dry. It’s almost the perfect storm.”
The statewide Sierra Nevada snow pack, the source of one-third of California’s water supply for farms and cities, climbed to 125 percent of its historical average for this date on Tuesday, up from 69 percent on Jan. 1.
Here's another look at the convective shower that hit the office (92ft elev) around 810am this morning! The biggest wet flakes came down with the initial onset of precip, then turned to smaller mixed rain/snow and ice pellets. #cawx pic.twitter.com/1vgzxrbxUV
— NWS Bay Area 🌉 (@NWSBayArea) February 5, 2019
In the Bay Area, the Santa Clara Valley Water District announced it would begin releasing water from several of its reservoirs, including Anderson Reservoir, its largest, near Morgan Hill, to reduce the risk that the lake would rise too fast in the coming days as runoff continues and more storms are expected by Friday.
Anderson is currently only 35 percent full. But state regulators have limited it to 58 percent full as a seismic safety measure until a project to rebuild the 70-year-old dam is completed. Two years ago, when Anderson quickly filled to the top during a series of soaking storms, water poured down its spillway, causing Coyote Creek to rise rapidly, triggering $100 million in damage to homes and businesses around downtown San Jose.
While water managers watched reservoir levels, many Bay Area residents took to the hills to enjoy the rare snow event.
There were widespread reports of snow sticking to the ground on the region’s mountains, including Diablo, Hamilton, Tamalpais, and on Highways 17 and 35 (Skyline Boulevard) in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Several families with children pulled off the road on southbound Highway 17 near the summit Tuesday morning to play in the snow. There was at least one snowman visible to passing motorists.
Sammy Baeza of San Jose drove up Quimby Road to check out the snowfall on Mount Hamilton. As he threw snowballs at his defenseless truck, he said, “The quality of this snow is perfect. I’m gonna head back down and see if I can get my wife to take the day off.”
Julia Startsev of Danville took her kids to enjoy the snow on Mount Diablo, where 2 to 3 inches of light, fluffy snow accumulated Tuesday at about 9 a.m. near the summit.
“If can get them to school I will, but if not I’m not going to sweat it,” Startsev said. “Last time when it snowed they actually all went to school and I regretted it.”
Dave Lubertozzi of San Pablo and Cheryl Leonard of San Francisco took advantage of the rare snowstorm and cross-country skied a meadow on Mount Diablo, close to the Juniper Trail.
“It was beautiful, a novel experience and worth getting up at five in the morning for,” Lubertozzi said.
He joked that “the avalanche danger was low.”
It is full on SNOWING at the Summit in the Santa Cruz Mountains. pic.twitter.com/DE1m9YxbYa
— Matt Keller (@MattKellerABC7) February 5, 2019
The weather service was relying on weather observers from around the Bay Area to measure and report snowfall totals. An observer at Mt. Hamilton reported an accumulation of 6 inches of snow Tuesday morning.
“Everyone is so excited, they’re going up and playing in it,” Peterson said. “We’ve had very few measurements.”
However, one of the weather services’ meteorologists joined the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services on a snow survey at White Oaks Campground in Big Sur, where 4 inches was recorded. On Twitter, the weather service noted that temperatures were in the 20s and “people are here camping.”
On Highway 17 at the summit, snow started falling at about 11 p.m. Monday, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Sam Courtney. Just before midnight a stretch of 17 at the summit was closed to allow Caltrans to use snow plows on the roadway.
The morning commute was “relatively uneventful” in terms of accidents and crashed on 17, Courtney said.
“We did see a lot of people pulling over, usually in the pullouts,” Courtney said. “I think people were just enjoying the novelty of the snow that we don’t get to see that often.”
Palo Alto police reported that Page Mill Road was closed Tuesday morning between Foothills Park Gate 1 and Skyline Boulevard because of ice and snow.
Snow also fell in the Oakland hills overnight along Skyline Boulevard.
Rainfall totals across the Bay Area were modest, with most cities recording less than a half-inch during a 24-hour period ending Tuesday at 3 p.m.
Nevertheless, the recent storms have continued to improve the water picture. Through Tuesday afternoon, San Francisco had received 12.75 inches of rain since Oct. 1, or 91 percent of its historical average, while Oakland was at 9.85 inches or 84 percent, and San Jose’s total hit 8.23 inches or 96 percent.
Most of the major reservoirs around the state continued to rise as billions of gallons of water poured in from rivers, streams and saturated hillsides, virtually guaranteeing that there won’t be mandatory summer water restrictions in most California cities this summer.
Shasta Lake, the state’s largest reservoir, has risen 36 feet since New Year’s Day, and on Tuesday was 66 percent full, or 97 percent of its historical average. Folsom Lake was 59 percent full, or 112 percent of its historical average for this time of year. And San Luis Reservoir, between Gilroy and Los Banos, was 87 percent full or 109 percent of its historical average.
Staff photographers Karl Mondon and Jane Tyska contributed to this report.
