Christmas returns to calm after rare tornado and heavy Sierra snowstorm
Alexander Hagen, 10, sleds down School Street in his historic Placer County community on Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015, in Dutch Flat, Calif.
Christmas brought cool yet calmer conditions to much of California a day after a tornado touched down in the middle of the state and a snowstorm blanketed the Tahoe area.
The tornado — with winds of up to 90 mph — developed in El Dorado County in the southern part of Folsom Lake and traveled several miles through El Dorado Hills, said Craig Shoemaker, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
One business suffered moderate roof damage; the winds also blew shingles loose on some homes and uprooted trees, at least one of which landed on a car.
“It is unusual, but it is not unprecedented,” Shoemaker said of the Thursday afternoon tornado.
The weather service was trying to determine whether a second twister had set down in the Modesto area, where wind damage led to a power outage.
The storm that battered Northern California this week brought heavy snowfall to the Sierra region, with 20 inches falling at Kirkwood Ski Resort over the 24-hour period that ended at 5 a.m. Friday.
Even before the storm, snowpack totals had looked promising, at about 110% of normal across the Sierra. Gradually melting snow is an important source of water for the state, which is in its fourth year of drought.
But California’s water woes are far from over.
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The Sierras have received only about one-third of what would make for an average snowpack by April 1.
And at this same time last year, the snow levels were also above normal, Shoemaker said. What followed was a long dry period.
“At this time last year we were way above normal,” he said. “So we don’t want people to let their guard down.”
In Southern California, the latest wave of winter weather brought snowfall of 2 to 4 inches to the Big Bear area.
And though the chance of flooding from high coastal surf ended Friday, swimming conditions remained potentially dangerous because of strong rip currents.
As the skies cleared, temperatures in downtown L.A. over the Christmas holiday weekend were expected to be in the upper 50s to low 60s, said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Average highs are closer to 67, he said.
Low temperatures overnight Friday were also expected to be a few degrees colder than normal, dropping into the lower 40s.
“We’re a little on the chillier side,” Seto said, adding that the colder conditions will probably continue through Tuesday.
Strong winds, which calmed during the daylight hours Friday, were expected to pick up sharply starting about 6 p.m., with gusts as high as 60 mph in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys. Strong winds are expected to last through noon Sunday.
Seto said drivers should “exercise extreme caution” on Interstate 5, near California 138, if their vehicles are at risk in windy conditions.
Twitter: @howardblume
Times staff writer Matt Stevens contributed to this report.
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