Dive Brief:
- A monster storm has lashed the West Coast with incredible rains and high winds that have done most damage in northern California. Dubbed the "Pineapple Express," the storm knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of residents
- Since the storm began, Pacific Gas & Electric said it had restored service to more than 300,000 customers, or about 86% of all impacted customers, as of 9 p.m. PST.
- Though the worst is done, the weather system stalled over parts of California brought winds in excess of 100 miles per hour in some areas and dumped massive amounts of rain, leading to flood warnings.
Dive Insight:
More rain is expected early next week, but for now a huge storm that battered the West Coast seems to be done. It remains unclear just how many lost power during the storm, but as of 9 p.m. PST PG&E had restored service to more than 300,000 customers, including 96% in the Bay Area and about 86% overall.
But the utility also said additional customers had lost power in the past few hours as the storm reached the southern portion of PG&E’s service area. Contract crews from Oregon, Washington, and Southern California are supporting PG&E in restoring service to customers, the company said.
KQED News' Dan Breck live blogged the "semi-mind-boggling storm," providing some context on the system and California's drought — which he stressed will still require more rain to alleviate. He noted that this storm was expected to be the strongest in years, and that previous storms in 2008 and 2009 had previously left 2.1 and 1.2 million PG&E customers in the dark.
Breck stayed with the storm most of yesterday, signing off only after pointing out an incredible statistic from the National Weather Service: A point in the Santa Lucia Mountains reported 2.84 inches of rain in one hour and 1.56 inches the next.
"If I’m reading the weather records right, that makes it one of the five rainiest December days in the city’s weather history going back to 1849," Breck noted. "It’s a little challenging to imagine the intensity, or the result in terms of runoff."
