The weather, having shone brightly on Christmas and Boxing days,
has changed its mind and moved into dark and stormy mode, possibly
for the entire week.
The weather, having shone brightly on Christmas and Boxing days, has changed its mind and moved into dark and stormy mode, possibly for the entire week.
The National Weather Service predicts showers this afternoon with rain returning tonight, Wednesday and Thursday, then tapering off with a chance of more rain or showers through the weekend.
On Thursday, snow could fall at elevations as low as 2,000-3,000-feet throughout the Bay Area according to Bob Benjamin of the National Weather Service in Monterey.
Temperatures are moderate locally, with highs in the mid 50s and lows in the low to mid 40s.
“You won’t need a long thermometer this week,” Benjamin said.
Only the highest peaks, Mt. Hamilton west of San Jose and the Highway 17 summit to Santa Cruz are high enough to expect snow, he said.
Most of the rain from Monday’s storm fell north of Santa Clara County with only .35 inches falling in Morgan Hill by 3pm Monday, bringing the season total to 5.55 inches.
High winds began gusting through the Morgan Hill area early Monday morning but, except for losing palm fronds and limbs, most trees managed to withstand major uprooting, according to a Morgan Hill Police dispatcher.
City Hall and Public Works are on holiday furlough and all emergency calls – downed trees, water main breaks, flooding, sewer problems – are routed through the police department which contact Public Works employees on duty.
Benjamin said that Monterey County had reported gusts as high as 60 mph and that Hollister and Gonzalez had received some wind damage. Several residents called the NWS to report tornadoes.
“There were no tornadoes,” Benjamin said. “Just high, gusty winds, but they did do damage.”
In Hollister about 7,000 customers, many of them in the downtown, were without power Sunday night and Monday morning.
The high winds in Hollister ripped part of the roof state Department of Motor Vehicles office.
Mike DiMarco, spokesman for Santa Clara Valley Water District, said the storm, so far, has caused no water-related problems.
“However, the National Weather Service has issued an urban and small stream flood warning through 4pm today (Monday),” he said.
Brian Swanson, spokesman for PG&E, said the wind had caused an outage in Morgan Hill, affecting 193 customers – or houses – near Hill Road and San Pedro from 8:20am to 10am Monday. An earlier outage in Gilroy caused 46 structures to lose power from 5:41pm Sunday to 2:30am Monday.
Residents whose property is threatened by flooding can pick up sandbags, free of charge, at El Toro Fire Station on Old Monterey Road, just behind the railroad overpass on Monterey Road, just south of Cochrane, or at the Public Works Department, 100 Edes Court, west off Monterey between Cosmo and Edmundson avenues.
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at ch********@*************es.com or phoning (408) 779-4106 Ext. 201.
