A NOAA graphic shows an extreme cold warning/cold weather advisory for the San Francisco Bay Area from midnight to 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Thunder, lightning and hail were reported around the Bay Area during the latest storm that hit the region Tuesday, and snow could fall at higher elevations overnight, National Weather Service forecasters said.
By midmorning Tuesday, there had already been roughly 500 lightning strikes in the region as well as pea-sized hail and wind gusts as high as 60 mph at higher elevations, according to the weather service.
The Sonoma County Office of Education reported that one of the lightning strikes in Santa Rosa knocked out power to Helen Lehman Elementary School, closing the campus for the day.
Weather service meteorologist Dial Hoang said there have been many reports of roads flooding around the Bay Area, as well as some reports of landslides in the East Bay hills. Caltrans officials said state Highway 1 in Big Sur had to close due to debris in the road from the storms.
Hoang said there could be snow in elevations as low as 3,000 feet on the eastern side of Santa Clara County and further south on the Central Coast. The weather service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory through 4 p.m. Wednesday for Santa Clara, Monterey and San Benito counties and a Cold Weather Advisory for other parts of the Bay Area.
Forecasters warned that black ice could also be an issue in areas that received rain and could flirt with freezing temperatures Wednesday. Traveling to the Lake Tahoe area is discouraged, and heavy snow has shut down Interstate Highway 80 from Colfax in Placer County to the Nevada state line, according to Caltrans.
The cold and wet weather is expected to persist in the Bay Area into later this week. The weather service says the conditions could be particularly hazardous for unhoused people and could damage or kill sensitive crops, plants and vegetation as well.
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