Mother Nature likely won't do many favors for Santa Claus this year.
A second round of felled trees, gale-force gusts and power outages were expected across Northern California overnight into Christmas morning, marking the latest salvo in a turbulent week of storms that already brought damaging winds to the Bay Area and a significant dumping of snow for holiday skiers in the Sierra.
The drumbeat of storms was expected to ease beginning later Thursday morning, with scattered showers and breezy conditions forecast for much of the Bay Area on Christmas Day before giving way to sunnier skies and colder temperatures over the weekend. The forecast likely signals a reprieve from a week-long atmospheric river that inundated much of California.
In the Sierra, the onslaught of storms meant direly-needed snow for parched Lake Tahoe-area ski resorts and perilous driving conditions, prompting forecasters and state transportation officials to plead for residents to avoid mountain roadways if all possible. In Southern California, pouring rain threatened to cause mudslides and flash flooding on areas hit hard by wildfires at the start of the year -- leading Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare states of emergency for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Shasta counties.
In the Bay Area, wind proved the greatest danger ahead of Christmas as two significant atmospheric troughs swung through the region -- one before dawn on Christmas Eve, and another forecast to arrive early Thursday morning. The see-sawing weather conditions meant destructive winds at night, leading to sunny, mild and unseasonably pleasant daylight hours across the Bay Area on Wednesday.
"We're expecting strong winds again, could be a bunch of thunderstorms as well," said Dylan Flynn, a National Weather Service meteorologist, on Wednesday afternoon. "But by the time the sun comes up (Thursday), the worst of the impacts will be behind us. We'll be trending toward better weather."
On Wednesday morning, the North Bay, Peninsula and the South Bay appeared to bear the brunt of one such storm front. A 108-mph gust hit Pablo Point, about two miles north of Nicasio in Marin County, while another 95-mph howler hit Pine Mountain Fire Road, about two miles south of the hamlet of Woodacre. In Alameda County, an 89-mph gust was recorded at Mines Tower, east of Del Valle Regional Park, and an 88-mph gust struck along North Peak Access Road in San Mateo County, two miles southeast of Pacific State Beach.
The greatest damage appeared concentrated in the North Bay, where gusty winds felled numerous trees. In Guerneville, two houses were significantly damaged, and a 3-year-old was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, according to The Press Democrat. At least three vehicles also were crushed by fallen trees, the outlet reported.
In the Bay Area, the largest power outage Wednesday morning affected about 16,500 customers in Campbell and Saratoga, while a nearby power outage left another 5,000 users in the dark, according to Pacific Gas & Electric. A fire at a substation in Saratoga caused the large outage in that area, said.
In all, more than 24,000 Bay Area customers remained without power as of 1:30 p.m., after crews had spent the morning repairing numerous downed power lines.
Downed trees and street flooding were reported in numerous areas across the Bay Area. In San Mateo County, "storm-related maintenance" prompted the closure of Highway 84 between Portola Road and Skywood Way, according to CalTrans. The agency gave no estimate for when the roadway would reopen.
Highway 35 was briefly blocked by a downed tree near Highway 9, close to the Saratoga Gap Open Space Preserve, according to California Highway Patrol. In the East Bay, a downed power line blocked a portion of Vasco Road in Livermore around 7 a.m.
In Menlo Park, a portion of Hamilton Avenue near Willow Avenue was closed due to street flooding, likely as a result of clogged storm drains, the city reported. Miguel Soria, who lives nearby, recalled running outside as the storm hit around 3 a.m. Wednesday to secure a canopy that almost came unmoored in his backyard.
"If I didn't go outside in time, that thing would probably be in my neighbor's house," said Soria, 35. "It got pretty intense."
Many tree service companies in the South Bay and Peninsula spent Wednesday busily removing downed timber. Dylan Limber, with the Davey Tree Expert Company, said he cleared a tree off a crushed vehicle in Pacifica. Another vehicle was reported crushed in the Half Moon Bay area, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office.
"This is a little more intense than we're used to up here," said Kyle Berube, who owns Skyline Fire Clearance Tree Service and cleared a tree that fell on a Chevy pickup in the Oak Ridge community along Skyline Boulevard. "I don't think people were prepared."
To the east, Caltrans instituted chain controls along Interstate 80 over Donner Pass as the first of several feet of snow began to drop over the Sierra and its parched Lake Tahoe-area ski resorts.
Skiers not already in Lake Tahoe for the holiday week were unlikely to reach their destinations beginning Wednesday, as the season's first major snowstorm started bearing down on the Sierra. Most of the Lake Tahoe region above 6,000 feet was forecast to receive 4 to 8 feet of snow from Wednesday morning through late Friday -- providing much-need snowpack, but making for dangerous travel conditions, according to the National Weather Service.
"The travel window was through early this morning, and conditions are going to deteriorate," said Courtney Carpenter, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "Check road conditions before you go, if you really must travel. I would prepare for lengthy delays and road closures. Pack an emergency kit, make sure you're prepared. But we don't recommended travel at his point."
For ski resorts forced to delay fully opening for the season amid meager snowpack, the fresh powder was cause for celebration.
"It's going to get us set up for the rest of the season," said Jon Slaughter, spokesman for Sugar Bowl Resort near Donner Summit. So far, the ski resort has only opened for two weekends this season, each time offering only two of its 12 lifts to skiers. "It it should allow us to expand terrain really quickly, get most lifts open." The storm front that crashed into the Bay Area early Wednesday morning marked the latest salvo in a week of turbulent weather, which began with a potent atmospheric river that drenched the area and broke a weeks-long run of abnormally-dry conditions.
Since then, Oakland and San Francisco have received slightly more than 3 inches of rain, while the Berkeley Hills have recorded between 4 and 6 inches of precipitation, according to the National Weather Service. To the south and west, the Santa Cruz Mountains have received between 2 and 4 inches of rain.
The highest totals appear to be centered in the North Bay, where up to 13 inches of rain has fallen on Mt. Tamalpais, the weather service reported. Between 3 and 5 inches of rain have fallen across the lower-lying areas of Marin County, including Mill Valley, Tiburon and Fairfax. Meanwhile, 4 to 6 inches of rain have fallen in and around Santa Rosa.
Precipitation totals have been more muted across the South Bay and parts of the Peninsula, with Redwood City, Palo Alto, San Jose and Santa Clara all receiving less than an inch of rain since this past weekend.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.