Hail, wind, rain and lightning slam Bay Area
OAKLAND, Calif. - A strong storm system is spinning off the Pacific Northwest coast sending a storm and cold front through the Bay Area bringing rain, wind, high elevation snow, and a slight chance of thunderstorms.
That's the Thursday forecast from the National Weather Service, where the brunt of the system hit right during the morning commute.
Crews were preparing in San Francisco setting up flood barriers. Pacific Gas & Electric officials said as of early Thursday evening, nearly 2,000 customers were experiencing outages throughout the Bay Area. About a third of those 1,899 affected were in San Francisco. 568 were on the Peninsula and 487 were in the East Bay, a spokesperson said. In the South Bay 79 customers are without power while 39 in the North Bay are going without.
Laura Lemay of Los Gatos said it was hailing at her house and there were also multiple lightning strikes moving onshore along the Santa Cruz mountains.
In the mountains, the NWS issued a winter storm warning for the Sierra Nevada from Thursday at 6 a.m. to Friday at 6 a.m. That means, snow will cover the road and driving visibility will be recommended.
Friday should dry out a bit and the weather should be partly sunny throughout the weekend, with the next rain system arriving on Monday.
People walk in the rain in San Francisco. Jan. 16, 2020
Flood preparation in San Francisco. Jan. 16, 2020