Storm on Tuesday night: Wind downs trees, power lines across Sacramento, N. California

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A menacing and massive winter storm, fueled by an “atmospheric river” from the north Pacific Ocean, has reached the Sacramento region on Tuesday night.

The extreme storm is bringing heavy winds, near-freezing rain and dangerous driving conditions to the Valley floor; even at low elevations, snow is falling in several areas in Northern California.

This updates page for Tuesday has ended; get the latest Wednesday developments here.

Power outages reported across Sacramento region, SMUD says

The storm, as advertised, has made its presence felt across the capital region Tuesday evening. Just after 11 p.m. about 76,000 customers of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District were without power, mostly due to power lines being knocked down by tree branches or the wind. A number of outages were being sparked by blowing transformers as well, according to the utility.

“Mother nature is dealing us a rough hand tonight,” SMUD said in its most recent update. “We’ve got all hands on deck to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. Thanks for your patience as we continue to assess the outages throughout the night.”

According to SMUD’s outage page, about 15,000 homes and businesses in Carmichael and 25,000 customers in Arden Arcade were offline. Further north, 3,000 customers in North Highlands were out as winds at McClellan Airfield gusted to 61 mph.

Nearly every corner of the county was affected, including Rio Linda, Citrus Heights, Folsom, Sacramento, Elk Grove, Galt and Herald, to name a few.

A power line had come across Lemon Hill Avenue near 63rd Avenue, according to the Sacramento Police Department, and officers planned to close the road. No further details were available. By 9:30 p.m., about hundred calls for service were made to Metro Fire and Sacramento Fire Department teams for various electrical emergencies.

The outages triggered multiple intersections to be without signals, according to the California Highway Patrol. Motorists are reminded that intersections without working signals are treated as four-way stops.

Customers of Pacific Gas & Electric weren’t faring much better. Just before 8 p.m., nearly 100,000 customers across 21 counties had lost electricity due to wind-related issues, according to PG&E statistics provided to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

In Davis, more than 3,300 are without power due to weather-related outages, the utilty said.

Areas affected included portions of Humboldt and Mendocino in the far northwest of the state, as well as Butte, Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties.

Outages were sighted across the four-county region as winds intensified. West of Davis, the West Plainfield Fire Department reported a telephone line had “sheared from its base” at County Road 96. The roadway is blocked between County Road 31 and Russell Boulevard, officials said.

Real-time map of wind gusts around Sacramento

Live updates: Severe gusts, mass power outages continue as storm rolls through California

Crash on Interstate 80 blocks eastbound lanes of Yolo Causeway

A tractor-trailer accident Tuesday night has blocked all eastbound lanes on the Yolo Causeway, according to the California Highway Patrol. The CHP issued a SigAlert for the roadway at 10:30 p.m.

A FedEx big rig overturned around 10:15 p.m. just east of Chiles Road, leaving traffic on the elevated span blocked. Officials with Davis and West Sacramento fire departments are responding.

One person was extricated at the scene, but other information was immediately available.

Wind chill knocks Sacramento’s temperature to freezing

Temperatures in the capital city at 10 p.m. reached 42 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. However, with the strong winds buffeting the region, the temperature with wind chill has reached 32 degrees, or freezing.

While temperatures are expected to continue to drop and winds will continue to remain strong through the night, Sacramento’s warming centers for the homeless were closed.

The lack of warming centers upset Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who spoke out during Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

“There’s a huge storm out here. People are gonna die tonight,” he said by video. “We can’t get a goddamn warming center open for more than one night because the county has rules? I’m sick of it.”

A shelter was opened at the Sacramento main library on Monday night as temperatures dipped below freezing, but officials did not open them Tuesday.

Fire in the Ben Ali neighborhood now out

A fire burning at a home on the 1700 block of Frienza Avenue in the Ben Ali section of Sacramento was being threatened by strong winds and could blow into another home, according to firefighters.

The Sacramento Fire Department said the fire, which started just after 9 p.m., was burning “near the weatherhead with exposure to an adjacent home.” A weatherhead, or service cap, is where electrical wires from transmission lines attach to a home.

At 9:50 p.m., fire officials said in a social media post that the fire was extinguished with no injuries.

Power outage knocks light-rail service offline

Power outages plaguing the Sacramento region due to fierce winds has stopped service on Sacramento Regional Transit’s Gold Line between Folsom and the eastern edge of Sacramento, including Rancho Cordova.

“Due to loss of power, there is a bus bridge in place on the Gold Line between Sunrise and Historic Folsom Stations in both directions,” RT said in a tweet.

RT said in a subsequent update that the bus bridge was extended to Power Inn Station “due to additional power outages.”

Delta flights to Sacramento diverted

A Sacramento-bound Delta flight from Minneapolis has been diverted to Fresno, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com. It was first of at least two flights by the airline after failing to land at Sacramento International due to high winds.

According to Sacramento International Airport’s automated weather system, conditions at the airport had deteriorated around 8:30 p.m. with winds at 32 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. Gusts at 9 p.m. were observed at 58 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

The Minneapolis flight took off at 6:45 p.m. Central time and had been expected to arrive at 8:39 p.m. Pacific. It landed safely at Fresno Yosemite International Airport.

According to FlightRadar24, the Airbus 320 made two attempts to land before the diversion. A subsequent Southwest flight from Los Angeles landed at 9 p.m.

A second flight, Delta 2230, diverted to Los Angeles International after its scheduled arrival around 10 p.m. An Airbus A320 was also used for the flight, which took off from Salt Lake City at 9:29 p.m. Mountain time.

Messages to an airport spokeswoman and a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration were not returned Tuesday night.

At Mather Airfield, which is used for cargo flights, a groundsman reported over radio that the airport had sustained winds above 45 mph for “45 minutes ... closer to two hours” at 10:30 pm.

Multi-vehicle accident on Highway 50 near Watt Avenue

Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District personnel have responded to a multi-vehicle crash on eastbound Highway 50 just east of Watt Avenue, according to firefighters and the California Department of Transportation.

At least two vehicles and seven patients were involved in the crash, Metro Fire said. According to the CHP, the crash occurred just before 7 p.m. One of the vehicles had rolled on to its roof, according to CHP incident logs.

The Metro Fire tweeted just after 8:30 p.m. that it was responding to “several vehicle accidents, wires down, trees downs, and power outages” across its territory.

Tree falls on vehicle in fire-scarred Paradise

One person was injured after a large fire-damaged oak tree fell onto a vehicle at Butte Creek Canyon Road and Centerville Road, west of Paradise in Butte County, according to storm spotters for the National Weather Service.

The crash occurred around 6 p.m. and the driver was taken to an area hospital. Winds at the time were gusting around 45 mph at the time, the weather service said.

Interstate 5 closes just north of Redding

The major north-south artery was closed Tuesday evening by highway officials due to blinding snow and multiple spinouts. Northbound lanes are closed 10 miles north of Redding and southbound traffic is halted at the junction with Highway 3 in Yreka.

I-5 at the Grapevine, on the southern end of the Valley near Bakersfield, was closed Tuesday morning due to icy conditions.

Road conditions across Northern California are expected to be treacherous throughout the night. If rain and snow aren’t a factor where motorists want to go, high winds will be, according to Caltrans.

Chain conditions began going up on the Sierra passes to the east of Sacramento, including Interstate 80 over Donner Summit. At 8 p.m., California Highway Patrol’s Truckee office tweeted: “Here we go!” They said tractor-trailers are at maximum restrictions and vehicles restrictions were in place in both directions.”

The latest conditions can be found on Caltrans’ QuickMap App and website.

Before the storm, Caltrans’ District 3 minced few words when urging motorists not to travel: “We cannot stress this enough — if you have not arrived to your destination before sunset tonight, travel to the Sierra is not advised. Heavy snow is on tap and whiteout conditions are expected.”

Snow falls at low elevation in Sonoma County

Residents of the burn areas in Sonoma County received snow as the storm barreled into the Wine Country area north of San Francisco Bay. Kent Porter, a photographer for The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, captured images of snow falling at 1,300 feet along Geysers Road above the Alexander Valley.

He also had advice for anyone braving the elements, especially journalists: “Put your feet in plastic bags before sliding on your boots. Trust me, much easier to pull off if your boots get soaked.”

Officials warned residents living in the fire-scarred areas to take extra precautions as the storms could bring debris flows to the area, but no evacuations were issued. According to The Press Democrat, rainfall of about an inch per hour would be needed to trigger debris flow in the Glass, Walbridge and Meyers burn zones.

Late Tuesday, officials in Solano County issued evacuation advisories for residents living in the LNU Lightning Complex burn scars.