Snow Lands On Bay Area Peaks, Closes Urban St. - And Not Over

PALO ALTO, CA -- Proving Mother Nature can deliver the granddaddy of all weather, the wild and woolly forecast calling for snow was for real. Page Mill Road in the city was closed between Foothills Park, Gate 1 and Skyline Boulevard due to snow and ice, the Palo Alto Police Department reported. It has since reopened.

Officers drove up to the area off the Oregon Expressway and found about a half inch of the white stuff that has pummeled the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range with up to 9 feet.

"It's rare this happens -- maybe every few years," police spokeswoman Janine De la Vega told Patch Tuesday morning. "They close it due to safety reasons."

A public works crew is on the scene to shore up the situation with a sanding of the road. In the meantime, motorists are advised to use an alternate route. The city plans to reopen it at noon. Page Mill Road is a commute route linking Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

"It's a windy road that's dangerous even without these conditions," Palo Alto Assistant Public Works Director Jon Hospitalier told Patch.

Hospitalier pointed out how jurisdictions have been told by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to "not prepare for the season, prepare for the individual storm" because conditions could change dramatically.

For years, NOAA climatologists have warned of climate change causing extremes as the most notable evidence.

Palo Alto has received more than 16 inches of rain so far this winter, in contrast to the 13 inches it usually gets for the entire season.

This latest cold storm system may not bring the temperatures of the Polar Vortex in the East, but it brings high risk to motorists.

Mts. Hamilton standing at 4,265 feet in Santa Clara County; Diablo at 3,806 feet in Contra Costa County; and Tamalpais at 2,572 feet in Marin County all received a few inches of snow. The same goes for Cobb Mountain at 4,483 feet in Lake County, in addition to Mount St. Helena at 4,341 feet in Napa County, the National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Mahle told Patch.

"One spotter in Morgan Hill said he saw snow at 700 feet," he said. "It started accumulating though at about 1,000 feet."

The California Highway Patrol summoned the plows to clear snow at the summit of State Route 17 in the Santa Cruz mountains at Vine Hill.

And the winter deluge isn't over.

The weather forecast for the Bay Area will warm up a little, with the snow level rising to about 3,000 feet starting in the North Bay on Thursday night and the South Bay by Friday morning.

Temperatures will drop in the 30s overnight, but a thawing in the 50s during the day brings a different issue.

"The concern here will be black ice," Mahle said.

Rain pounded the Silicon Valley with 0.25- to 0.50 inches in the last 24 hours. In the hills, those measurements increase from a half inch to 1 inch. Los Gatos, for one town, endured 0.94 inches at the 1,500-foot level.

And more from the weather in the region -- Pescadero Creek Road in Loma Mar south of La Honda is also closed due to wires down. Both lanes are currently blocked. The fire department and Pacific Gas & Electric has responded. The closure is expected to last a few hours.

Area parks have been effected too. Big Basin State Parks campgrounds is closed until Wednesday. Castle Rock State Park has closed its parking lot due to the danger of high winds.

--Images via Laurel Anderson, Palo Alto Police Department; Sue Wood, Patch