The weather service said a foot (0.3 m) to 18 inches or more of snow was measured in the Sierras.
High wind advisories and gale warnings were posted up and down the state, as poorly anchored trees were uprooted in already-weakened and rain-soaked soil, downed power lines and damaged roads. got blocked.
Dangerous surf warnings were in effect for the state’s three northernmost coastal counties – Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte – where three-story waves battered the shoreline and crashed on beaches.
human toll
Officials have reported at least two weather-related deaths from the latest storm. A 1- or 2-year-old boy was killed after a trailer home crashed overnight, and a 19-year-old woman was killed when her car slammed into a utility pole from a partially flooded road Wednesday.
Four other deaths have been attributed to New Year’s weekend storms that swept through Northern California – three flood victims were found in or near their cars and an elderly man was found dead under a fallen tree.
About 180,000 homes and businesses, mostly in northern and central California, were without power on Thursday, according to data from Poweroutage.us.
“This was one of the most powerful winter storms to hit our area in years,” said Megan McFarland, a spokeswoman for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Main utility for northern and central California.
Flooding, downed trees and downed power lines made major roads impassable in Point Arena and Gualala, two small Mendocino County coastal communities about 125 miles (201.17 km) north of San Francisco, which experienced blackouts through Wednesday Huh.
North of Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg, professional porcupine diver Grant Downie said he took his boat out of the water before the storm hit as a precaution.
“Boat, insured or not, I feel safer with it on a truck hitting a tree than drowning in water,” he said.
Crews in San Francisco spent the morning clearing debris from fallen trees that blocked roadways. The city’s fire department rescued a family trapped after a tree fell on their car.
Officials advised Sonoma County residents near the Russian River between the wine country towns of Healdsburg and Jenner to evacuate their homes as the rain-swollen waterway is near flood stage.
Evacuation warnings were also issued for coastal cities such as Santa Cruz. Officials closed 55 miles of Route 1, a scenic coastal highway, due to flooding and debris. In Santa Barbara County, homes were ordered to be evacuated in three areas where mountain slopes were inundated by wildfires.
For Californians, the latest storms vividly illustrated the consequences of warmer sea and air temperatures fueled by climate change, producing atmospheric river storms with increasing frequency and intensity amid extreme, multi-year droughts.
While the Sierra snowpack, a major source of California’s water supply, was left above average for this time of year by the storms, much more would need to accumulate through the winter to clearly ease the drought, say the experts.