

The definition of a “bomb cyclone” is a storm where the barometric pressure falls at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. Wednesday - down from the peak of 234,000 customers without power at about 6:45 p.m. Pacific Gas and Electric Company was dealing with 67,557 customer power outages throughout the Bay Area at 3 p.m. State Routes CLOSED due to weather-related traffic hazards: Highway 9, which links Santa Cruz to the South Bay and runs through the middle of Boulder Creek, was shut down in four spots due to weather-related traffic hazards Wednesday, according to the California Highway Patrol. Diana and Dan Hulme make their way to their La Madonna Drive home in Scotts Valley with their children Ollie and Hazel on Tuesday after a large eucalyptus tree fell and blocked their driveway. In Santa Cruz County, the San Lorenzo Valley Unified School district canceled school for all five of its schools Wednesday, citing extensive damage from fallen trees and power lines throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains.


Among them were downed wires, local small flooding and vehicle crashes. In Contra Costa County, emergency crews responded to 100 calls over a 24-hour period, involving myriad incidents, said Contra Costa Fire Protection District spokesperson Steve Hill. The wind toppled a big rig on the Bay Bridge and churned up waters in the bay with gusts the weather service measured up to 81 mph. “Enjoy it.”Īlthough the rain totals from the storm were not extreme, it was the explosive and violent wind that did the real damage. “Things will dry out,” said Alexis Clouser, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)įorecasters said dry weather is expected Thursday through Sunday, with another storm system possible next Monday. The latest storm brings strong winds and rain to the San Jose State University campus on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, in San Jose, Calif. About 1¾ inches fell in Orinda, the top spot in Contra Costa County, about 1¼ was recorded in downtown Oakland, and about nine-tenths fell in San Francisco. All those things have dollar signs.”īy Wednesday afternoon, the rain had stopped.Īt 1 p.m., the weather service reported 24-hour rainfall totals of more than 4 inches in Wunderlich Park in San Mateo County, 3¾ at Ben Lomond in Santa Cruz County and 2 inches in Los Gatos in Santa Clara County. “You want the highest resolution you can get going into the forecast model and the biggest, fastest computer. Null said more buoys, weather balloons and higher resolution data from satellites is needed to continue to improve forecasts. If the center of the low had been over the ocean, we would have had some rain but less wind.” A tiny error can end up with a 30-mile difference. “There’s a lack of data over the ocean,” Null said. Instead, it arrived about 30 miles to the east, over the Peninsula, Santa Cruz Mountains, San Francisco and East Bay. Supercomputer models that forecasters use predicted the center of the low pressure zone would be farther offshore. If anything, the swirling, dueling systems might have slowed the winds down, said Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services in Half Moon Bay. The Fujiwhara Effect, however, didn’t cause the increased wind speeds. Wind-blown waves crash of the Santa Cruz Harbor Jetty on Tuesday.
