In a Twitter post from Thursday night shared by the National Weather Service, Meteorologist Brian Garcia said there would be precipitation and snow in the Bay Area and Santa Cruz Mountains.
“We are looking at snow already falling in Northwest California even down to the coast and Humboldt and in Mendocino counties, and that is sinking into the Bay Area,” meteorologist Brian Garcia said. “You can see all these clouds moving in Northwest California, heading down towards our little neck of the woods in the Bay Area.”
Winter storm warnings have been issued everywhere in elevations of 1000 feet and above. The highest accumulations will be above 2000-2500 feet. It doesn’t mean there won’t be snow below that, but most of the accumulating snow should remain above that.
There’s a low probability that we’ll see any accumulating snow on the coast. Even so, if you don’t have to drive tomorrow morning, don’t. Caltrans and other road crews will be clearing roads.
Meanwhile, this weekend, drivers through Hwy 17 and down the 101 or interstate 5 should expect snow. Conditions are expected to be dangerous as snow and heavy rain are expected to cause low visibility and hazardous road conditions.
“If we look at the precipitation and how it’s going to roll through, we can see that the precipitation starts to come in just a few hours here and through North Bay and then starts to spread across the Bay Area core, probably around one to 3am,” Garcia added.
Around sunrise on Friday, Santa Cruz and Monterey are expected to be hit with showers, which should clear up by midday.
UPDATE:
Santa Cruz County officials are asking residents Friday to cancel all travel plans except in cases of emergency because of a winter storm that is impacting many major roads around the county.
Snow, ice and high winds have combined with fallen trees and downed power lines to create hazardous conditions around Santa Cruz County and have closed major thoroughfares like state Hwy 17, which closed in both directions overnight.
The county’s Emergency Operations Center has been activated to monitor the storm activity and to coordinate the response by public agencies. The county advised people to use libraries or other public facilities to warm up, charge electronic devices and use the internet if their homes are being affected by power outages. santacruzpl.org/branches
