Fallen tree blocks street in Nevada City
Trees fell down, blocking streets and littering the road with branches. Trees fell on houses in Nevada City, according to readers here. As much as 18 inches of snow was reported on Banner Mountain.
All of Northern California was battered. In San Francisco, we heard lightning strike the Bay Bridge on Saturday, a eerie sight and sound. The thunder clap was enormous. The photo topped the nightly newscast. It is here.
PG&E reports outages in Nevada City, Grass Valley, Alta Sierra and throughout the foothills, affecting thousands of customers. The outage map is here.
“SR 20 is closed from Nevada City to the junction of I-80 due to fallen trees and snow,” according to the Caltrans report on Sunday morning. Chains are required on the mountain roads that are open. A CalTrans road report is here.
“SNOWING HARD!!,” wrote one reader here on Saturday night. “In Cypress Hill we have over five inches and it keeps coming down. We just saw two blue/white flashes in the sky, a sure sign the electrical grid is starting to take some hits with snow laden branches shorting across multiy phase power lines.”
The California Highway Patrol incident report shows a number of vehicle traffic hazards, including stranded vehicles and ones that are blocking snow removal equipment. The report is here.
Fallen trees included a 40-foot pine tree that fell from our front yard into the street in Nevada City. The street was closed Saturday morning while PG&E and AT&T crews cut it lose from the lines. Our home insurer is on it.
We stuck with our plans and headed to San Francisco in the afternoon. But you could not escape the storm: The lightning strike on the Bay Bridge was bizarre. It was not far from our hotel in the Financial District.
There was an upside though: Lunch at Perry’s in the Marina (watching Stanford crush Cal) and dinner at Sam’s Grill for fresh seafood.
We are coming home between storms. Be careful out there.
Share your snow storm stories here. (The best reports are coming from “citizen journalists” here. So far, there has been no real-time reporting on the local media websites).
Perry's in S.F. - Calm between the storms
Filed under: Uncategorized
We woke up at 5:30 this morning with no power on Nevada Street.
Also, a large cedar tree fell onto the house next door.
Lots of branches down yesterday, all around town.
Not one, but TWO trees lie upon our roof this morning. Old maple in the front yard couldn’t take the pressure, split down the middle, and it’s a miracle it didn’t come through the window. Liquidamber from the neighbor’s yard covers the middle of the house. Out back by the creek lots of smaller cottonwood branches. So far it doesn’t look like the roof has been compromised.
Here at Crabb Hollow, this date shall henceforth be known as “the night of cracking wood.” Must go now, I have to clear a path to the street.
Good luck, hopefully before long it’s gone from scary to funny – funny enough for a comic maybe?
If you need some help, I could come in with chain saw.
We got about 4 inches last night, but then back to rain. Lost power for a couple of hours, generator work’s fine, plus Coleman propane and stream ]lights until generator was running.
Yes, the “night of cracking wood” fits. I took my dog for a walk at the height of the snow falling last night and heard and saw many branches cracking and come down with a thump. We walked in the middle of the street as there was no traffic in the subdivision and definately wanted to stay clear of the trees.
It did seem like there were more cracking trees, transformers blowing up, and 5-second power flickers than in the last few years. The snow looks particularly like a 32,000-ounce slurpee, heavy and soggy. Avalanches from the roof all night long. Stay safe!
The news in Lake of the Pines is that there isn’t any. Moderate wind and rain (for a major storm) and no snow. Power has remained on, but since this is PG&E, that’s subject to change.
My niece reports 18 inches of snow at their house on Butterfly on Banner Mountain.
I guess I won’t have any stories to tell my grandchildren.
After being “dark” all day yesterday, theunion.com has posted its first, limited report on the storm at 9:16 a.m. “Storrm (sic) forces closure of Highway 20,” it read. The internet is changing the way we communicate, providing reports 24/7, with or without the local media. You can checks the links on this post for updates on road closures, power outages and CHP reports. I find the Facebook posts from “citizen journalists” useful too, including the one reporting three feet of snow on the West Shore of Lake Tahoe. Also check http://www.NevadaCountyWeather.com. Be careful out there!
I’m about 1/4 mi from Greenhorn & Brunswick. No power here since last night. From eyeballing it on my bird feeder I’d guess about 15 in of snow here so far.
We had no landline phone for a while, but it was back as of this morning. Plenty of wood and propane. We’ve done this before and can do it again. THanks in advance to PG&E and AT&T as well as all emergency services. We know you are working hard.
I’m connected via iPad and interrmittent cell (Edge or 3G depending on conditions) data signal I get in one part of the house.
Thanks for the outage map and info, Jeff. You do a great job. The hardest part of this is feeling so cut off when I am so used to being so connected. You fill in the info gap.
Hope you’ve made the drive safely. One thing I really do miss about the city, other than sailing the bay, is the potential for a Flash Mob, like this one:
Returned home safely and the power is on. But no AT&T cell.
-JP
November 22 is today.
There was a time we thought no one would forget that day.
No mention in the paper.
I must be really old now.