In summary

A series of storms has dumped immense amounts of water on California, but the state needs some new plumbing to take advantage of such events and counteract the effects of drought.

The rain and snow storms that have pummeled California for weeks have taken nearly two dozen lives and caused billions of dollars in damages to public and private property.

The flip side, however, is that they dropped immense amounts of water on a state that has suffered through severe drought for several years. At one point this month, an astonishing 160,000 cubic feet of water – 1.2 million gallons – was flowing through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta every second. That’s enough water to fill a reservoir the size of Folsom Lake, about 1 million acre-feet, in three days and doesn’t count water falling on other regions, such as Southern California.

 Whether the storms have ended the drought, however, depends on California’s ability to capture enough water to fill its badly depleted reservoirs and at least begin to recharge underground aquifers that have been terribly overdrafted by desperate farmers.

So far, only a relatively tiny amount of the immense storm runoff has found its way into storage. For instance, just a trickle of the Delta’s heavy flows has been pumped into state and federal aqueducts for delivery to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, largely because of rules that limit diversions to protect endangered species such as the two-inch-long Delta smelt.

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San Joaquin Valley legislators have beseeched President Joe Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom to relax the rules so that more runoff can be either delivered to farmers or placed in storage, such as the San Luis Reservoir, which is now less than half-full.

“This is no time to be dialing back the pumps,” state Sen. Melissa Hurtado and Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, both Democrats from Bakersfield, told Newsom in a letter last week. “After several years of drought and low reservoir levels, it only makes sense to capitalize on wet conditions”

“We have a moral obligation to provide Californians any relief that is within our control,” five Republican congressional members told Biden and Newsom. “Government regulations should not and must not deny our constituents critical water from these storms.”

State water officials, however, say their hands are tied by environmental protection rules requiring that initial winter flows be allowed to flush out the Delta and San Francisco Bay.

What’s been happening, or not happening, during the weeks-long deluge indicates that California needs some new plumbing to take advantage of the periodic “atmospheric rivers” that bring immense amounts of precipitation.

Meteorologists believe that due to global climate change, the state will experience more erratic weather – prolonged periods of drought interrupted by occasional storm events such as the ones California has been experiencing.

That means we need more storage, such as the Sites Reservoir on the west side of the Sacramento Valley that’s been in the planning stage for several decades and sinking basins to recharge aquifers. The long-dormant, $4 billion Sites project now has the ardent support of state and federal officials, as well as some serious money.

The relatively meager diversions from the Delta now allowed by law, meanwhile, bolster the case for the “Delta Conveyance,” which would allow more water to be diverted into the state and federal aqueducts, and thus into downstate reservoirs, without running afoul of environmental restrictions. The project has kicked around for six decades, first as a “peripheral canal,” later as twin tunnels dubbed “Water Fix,” and now a single tunnel.

California water managers will have another chance to fill reservoirs in a few months, when the immense Sierra snowpack that’s twice the historic average and still growing melts. We can only hope that Mother Nature releases the snowpack’s water slowly enough to avoid destructive floods.

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File Photo: Data from FlightAware showed more than 5,400 flights within, to or from the United States were delayed and more than 1,600 were canceled as of Tuesday afternoon.

By Chris Isidore and Jordan Valinsy | CNN

Claude Ronnie Msowoya and his family spent three days trying to get to Johannesburg, South Africa, but had to return home by train with no luggage.

Msowoya told CNN that his United Airlines flight from Boston to Newark Airport was delayed on Sunday, causing him and his family to miss their connecting United Airlines flight from Newark to Johannesburg.

Msowoya said his family ended up being booked on another United Airlines flight due to depart Monday night, which was also cancelled.

“We had to go to customer service, which took us 10 hours the day before. We didn’t get any help and later tried to get our luggage to cancel the trip. “We stood in line at baggage claim for six hours just to be told that they would not give anyone their bags and that they should file a claim and pray and hope that their bags would be delivered to them,” Msowoya said.

Msowoya told CNN that his family decided to take the train back to Boston after spending three days at Newark Airport.

His story was hardly unique. The restrictions on air travelers continued on Tuesday for the fourth day. More than 7,000 flights in the United States have been delayed or canceled after powerful storms swept across parts of the country, including the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Northeast, where many busy hubs are located.

FlightAware data showed that as of Tuesday afternoon, more than 5,400 flights within, to or from the United States were delayed and more than 1,600 were cancelled. Still, that’s a significant drop from Monday’s chaos, when more than 11,000 flights were either delayed or canceled due to severe weather and air traffic control staffing problems.

United Airlines was again the worst performer among US domestic carriers. Approximately 16% of the flight schedule or 467 flights were canceled and another 37% or 1,062 flights were delayed just before 6pm ET. Republic Airways, which operates feeder flights for American Airlines, Delta and United, has had 35% of its schedule canceled (333 flights).

The four US airports hardest hit Tuesday afternoon are all major hubs for United or Delta: Newark Liberty in New Jersey, both New York City airports (LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy) and Logan in Boston. But the problems weren’t just limited to the Northeast. According to FlightAware, there were 17 airports across the country, from San Francisco to Orlando, that had at least 20% of their flights delayed.

More than 40 million people in the Northeast and Central Plains are at risk from severe storms on Tuesday. Most people at risk are in the Northeast, including Philadelphia and Washington, DC, where the Storm Prediction Center has issued a Level 1 out of 5 threat. Parts of Kansas and Oklahoma, including Wichita and Tulsa, have a Level 3 out of 5 severe weather risk.

Isolated thunderstorms are again expected east of a cold front from the mid-Atlantic to parts of the northeast, which can later lead to even more flight delays and cancellations.

Some of these afternoon storms could produce damaging gusts of wind, and heavy rains from these storms could result in isolated flash flooding, particularly over parts of southeastern New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

United’s CEO blames the FAA for the weekend’s delays

Since travel problems mounted on Saturday, more than 5,000 flights to, from or within the United States have been canceled and another 28,500 delayed, according to FlightAware’s midday statistics as of Tuesday noon.

While weather is partly to blame for the problem, understaffing at Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control centers and a lack of capacity at US airlines also play a role.

This exacerbates the problem as it makes it difficult for the system to deal with disruptions caused by inclement weather and for passengers to find seats on new flights when their original flight has been cancelled.

In a strongly worded memo to staff, the United Airlines chief blamed staffing problems at the FAA’s air traffic controllers for last weekend’s “unprecedented challenges,” which affected “over 150,000 customers at United alone.”

“The FAA frankly let us down this weekend,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in an internal company memo shared with CNN.

Kirby says the FAA cut arrival rates at its main hub, Newark Liberty International Airport, by 40 percent and departure rates by 75 percent on Saturday, which “almost certainly reflects understaffing/less experience at the FAA.” .

“This resulted in massive delays, cancellations, diversions, crews and aircraft losing their position,” Kirby said. “And that brought everyone to their heads when the weather actually hit on Sunday, and was exacerbated by staffing shortages at the FAA on Sunday night.”

Kirby says he will be meeting with the FAA and the Department of Transportation “to discuss what short-term steps the FAA can take to prevent something like this from happening again this summer.”

The FAA responded Tuesday morning, saying, “We will always work with anyone who is genuinely willing to join us to resolve an issue.”

In the memo, Kirby carefully emphasized that current FAA leadership did not cause the current personnel problem, but that it must be addressed. “To be fair, it’s not the fault of the current FAA leadership,” he wrote, but added, “They are responsible for solving the problem they inherited.”

These latest problems come at a particularly busy time. With millions of passengers packing for commercial flights for the long holiday weekend, the Transportation Security Administration expects air traffic on July 4 will be even greater than before the pandemic.

The agency expects 2.82 million people to be screened at airports nationwide on Friday, beating a post-pandemic record set on June 16 and the 2.79 million passengers screened by the TSA on July 7, 2019 becomes.

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A vehicle drives through a flooded area near the Martinez Refinery in Martinez, California on Friday, January 13, 2023. On Jan. 4, the Martinez Refinery Company reported that more than six million gallons of storm water and sewage were dumped into the Carquinez Strait estuary to prevent damage to the refinery. The refinery is one of dozens of minor incidents caused by open manhole covers, ruptured pipes and overloaded sewage treatment plants dumping millions of gallons of wastewater into the San Francisco Bay area. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

January’s storms offer a disturbing glimpse into one of the Bay Area’s dirtiest environmental mysteries: torrential rains are overloading our region’s vast sanitation system, flushing wastewater where it doesn’t belong.

In just two weeks, downpours across the region triggered the release of millions of gallons of raw sewage mixed with rainwater, according to an analysis by Bay Area News Group, sending contaminated water into dozens of rivers, streams and eventually the ocean and San Francisco Bay 88 reports to the state emergency services.

“Flooded bodies of water contain pathogens,” warned Eileen White, chief executive of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. “If you come into contact with floodwaters, you should wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water to ensure you don’t expose yourself to the hazard.”

When wastewater enters homes and businesses, costly remediation and decontamination measures are required to make them safe again. Spills can also have dangerous environmental consequences as human waste, medicines, shampoos and other harmful products are flushed down drains and toilets.

In one incident, the Martinez Refinery Company reported that it discharged more than six million gallons of storm and sewage water into the mouth of the Carquinez Strait, which empties into the San Francisco Bay, on Jan. 4, according to state records. The discharge of partially treated “process water” and stormwater was necessary to prevent damage to the refinery, the company said.

Dozens of other minor incidents were caused by open manhole covers, busted pipes and overloaded treatment plants, from Corte Madera to Woodside and Half Moon Bay to Pleasanton.

State records show that between Dec. 31 and Jan. 3, a total of more than 14 million gallons of wastewater was discharged in the San Francisco Bay area, enough to fill 21 Olympic-size swimming pools, White said. The Jan. 4 storm triggered the release of an additional 8 million gallons, or 12 Olympic-size swimming pools.

More recent publications are still counted. Experts believe that the total volume is likely to be much larger than currently estimated, as the chaotic circumstances of these emergency flooding situations make it nearly impossible to accurately assess the true extent and impact of the sewage pollution.

Like bridges or skyscrapers that are designed to support specific loads, stormwater management systems are designed for weather conditions — and cannot handle the intensity of storms that may only occur once every decade or two.

In dry times, household and business waste is immediately disposed of in sewage treatment plants, where it is never seen, smelled, or considered again.

But two weeks of near-continuous storms have strained the system as torrential rains and flooding invade sewer pipes.

“We saw 13 times our average wastewater flows,” said Andrea Pook of the East Bay Municipal Utilities District.

According to the reports, most of the releases were caused by rainwater flowing back into the streets and up through drains or manhole covers opened by the overwhelming amount of high-pressure streams.

In Redwood City, a spillway discharged polluted water into Borel Creek at a rate of 150 gallons per minute. In San Mateo, 100 to 150 gallons per minute flowed into a storm drain that empties into Polhemus Creek. About 50 gallons per minute were dumped into Sonoma Creek. In Oakland, 25,000 gallons overflowed into Lake Merritt from three manholes.

When a sewage lift station in Daly City overflowed due to rainwater, 35,950 gallons of waste was dumped into the Pacific Ocean. The rupture of a main treatment line at Moss Beach also resulted in a spill into the sea. In Pacifica, an overflowing pumping station resulted in 20,000 gallons being pumped out at Linda Mar Beach. About 34,000 gallons were released in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Menlo Park when a West Bay Sanitary treatment plant couldn’t keep up with the flow.

According to a Jan. 11 report, the West County Sewage Plant in Richmond pumped sewage directly into the San Francisco Bay. “It is not known how long the release will take,” it said.

Three outflows into San Leandro Creek, Barnhill Marina, and an estuary at the foot of Alice Street in Oakland emanated from the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s “overflow” structures, which are designed to discharge high-flow water.

Further south, a sewage treatment plant was flooded on Friday when the Salinas River overflowed the banks of a levee. Infiltration ponds in the city of Templeton were also flooded, dumping 300,000 gallons into the river.

Cal Fire Caption Curtis Rhodes walks past a home flooded by the Salinas River on Chualar Road near Chualar, California on Thursday, January 12, 2023. Like many overloaded sewage treatment plants, a Monterey County sewage treatment plant was flooded on Friday when the Salinas River rushed over the banks of a levee. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Mother Nature creates additional chaos. In Oakland, a tree fell on the sewer line, dumping 5,100 gallons of sewage into Sausal Creek. At Crockett, a mound eroded and collapsed, rupturing a pipe and releasing 2,700 gallons. When debris blocked a sewer line, about 10,000 gallons spilled into a drain leading to Lake Temescal in Oakland.

Records show that a single day—December 31, New Year’s Eve—with 51 layoffs in various Bay Area cities was responsible for the largest number of reports to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

That morning alone there were 15 sewage discharges in 12 cities: Hillsborough, Woodside, San Bruno, Daly City, Pacifica, Burlingame, Half Moon Bay, San Lorenzo, Richmond, Piedmont, Oakland and Daly City. As of midnight, there were another 36 discharges in 25 cities: Alameda, Oakland, San Mateo, Richmond, Pacifica, Martinez, El Granada, Montara, Pittsburg, Corte Madera, San Francisco, Antioch, Redwood City, Dublin, San Leandro, Albany, Berkeley , Woodside, Vallejo, Menlo Park, Benicia, Sausalito, Pleasanton, Foster City and Hayward.

The problem isn’t new, said Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, a nonprofit focused on San Francisco Bay health. But the constant rain has exacerbated the problem.

“Over the years, and usually every time it rains, we see sewage spilling on the streets and sewage overflowing,” she said. “But the successive major storm events are leading to a continuous discharge. That’s the new thing.”

Experts say that as the population continues to grow, the demands on our sewage systems have increased. Now, more construction means more asphalt and cement, so most of the precipitation ends up in our sewage systems. And our sewage pipes, often made of clay, are getting on in years, so water seeps in through cracks and crevices.

The rate at which the urban Bay Area is adapting to these threats is lagging behind the rate at which rain is inundating it, Choksi-Chugh said. Cities need to invest in replacing pipes and upgrading wastewater treatment systems to increase storage capacity and install more recycling technologies, she said. Cities could also encourage homeowners to replace old pipes with grants or low-interest loans.

Without major improvements to our sewerage infrastructure, these dangerous spills will increase as climate change leads to more extreme weather, experts say.

“Our old infrastructure just won’t keep up,” said Choksi-Chugh. “It won’t be able to handle these major storm events year after year. So we really have to think about the future.”

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SUMMARY: A series of storms have inundated California with copious amounts of water, but the state needs new pipelines to take advantage of such events and counteract the effects of the drought.

The rain and snow storms that battered California for weeks have claimed the lives of nearly two dozen people and caused billions of dollars in damage to public and private property.

The downside, however, is that they have dumped immense amounts of water on a state that has been suffering from severe drought for several years. Once this month, a staggering 160,000 cubic feet of water — 1.2 million gallons — flowed through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta every second. That’s enough water to fill a reservoir the size of Folsom Lake, about 1 million acre-feet, in three days, and doesn’t count the water falling on other regions like Southern California.

Whether the storms ended the drought, however, depends on California’s ability to catch enough water to fill its badly depleted reservoirs and at least begin to replenish underground aquifers that have been horribly overextended by desperate farmers.

So far, only a relatively small portion of the immense storm runoff has found its way into storage. For example, only a trickle of the delta’s strong currents have been pumped into state and federal aqueducts to supply the San Joaquin Valley and southern California, largely due to rules restricting diversions to protect endangered species like the 2-inch-long delta smelt.

San Joaquin Valley lawmakers have asked President Joe Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom to relax rules so more runoff can either be shipped to farmers or stored in storage facilities like the San Luis Reservoir, which is now less than half full.

“This is no time to call back the pumps,” Sen. Melissa Hurtado and Rep. Jasmeet Bains, both Democrats from Bakersfield, told Newsom in a letter. “After several years of drought and low reservoirs, it only makes sense to take advantage of wet conditions.”

“We have a moral obligation to provide Californians with any relief that is within our control,” five Republican congressmen told Biden and Newsom. “Government regulations should not and must not deny our constituents critical water from these storms.”

But state water agencies say their hands are tied by environmental protection regulations that dictate that early winter currents are allowed to wash out the delta and San Francisco Bay.

What happened or didn’t happen during the week-long deluge suggests that California needs new pipelines to take advantage of the periodic “atmospheric flows” that bring immense amounts of rainfall.

Meteorologists believe the state will experience more unpredictable weather — prolonged droughts punctuated by occasional storm events like California has experienced — due to global climate change.

That means we need more reservoirs, like Sites Reservoir on the western side of the Sacramento Valley, which has been in the planning stages for several decades, and sinking basins to replenish aquifers. The long-dormant $4 billion Sites project now has the passionate support of state and federal officials, as well as some cash.

Meanwhile, the relatively meager diversions out of the delta now permitted by law reinforce the case for “delta conveyance,” which would allow more water to be diverted into the state and federal aqueducts, and thus underground reservoirs, without harming the environment affect restrictions. The project has been running for six decades, first as a “Randkanal”, later as a twin tunnel called “Water Fix” and now as a single tunnel.

California water managers will have another chance to fill reservoirs in a few months as the Sierra’s immense snowpack, which is twice the historical average and still growing, melts. We can only hope that Mother Nature sheds the snowpack’s water slowly enough to avoid destructive flooding.

Dan Walters is a journalist and author who writes for CALmatters.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media outlet that explains California politics and politics.

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After dealing with flooding, wind damage, downed trees and power outages during historic winter storms, Bay Area residents are reporting a different type of wet weather outcome: ant invasions.

“Long, irritating, invasive tapes of theirs,” a Bay Area resident said on Facebook.

“We had a full invasion,” said another.

“I’m from San Francisco and I don’t remember ever having ants in the house like we’ve had for the past few years,” Madison Smith, 37, told The Chronicle. “We find ants mainly in the front bedrooms, and then in the basement and bathroom.”

Experts say such unwanted incursions are common during the winter months — especially after heavy rains that soak the ground and drive ants out of their nests or ruin their food.

“Their invasions typically occur in winter, especially after heavy rains have inundated their outdoor nests, or in late summer when we’re having our hottest weather and they need to find cooler, wetter conditions,” said UC Berkeley professor and insect behaviorist Neil Durie Tsutsui .

Zach Smith, owner of Smith’s Pest Management in San Jose, said he’s definitely noticed a difference this season.

“It’s absolutely worse and we’ve had more calls than ever about ants and rats,” he said. “Even during those first rains in December, the calls came in. It seemed such an unforgiving winter.”

Here’s what you need to know about the ants and how to stop them from taking over your home.

What types of ants come into my house?

The typical native invader in the Bay Area is the Argentine ant, or Linepithema humile, an invasive species that originated in South America, Tsutsui said. According to Zach Smith, these ants produce super colonies and work together harmoniously.

The smaller scented house ant is another common animal, said Matt Fisher of Omega Termite and Pest Control.

Why are ants invading now?

Ants are driven indoors by two things, Tsutsui said: bad conditions outside — like rain or heat — and food.

“The series of atmospheric flows this winter have saturated the soil and driven Argentine ants into unusual nesting sites, leading to many home invasions during the winter,” he said. “These invasions are usually temporary, and the ants return outside when the weather is more pleasant.”

If things dry up, the ants will be out and about again looking for new homes, which means fewer ants live with us, Tsutsui said. But if they find food indoors, they can become your new housemates.

How do they get in?

No matter how well built your home, ants can still likely find a way inside, experts said.

“Houses are so porous,” said Zach Smith. “There are a dozen ways into any well-built house…Anything a needle can pierce, ants can pierce.”

According to experts, ants enter through cases around windows, gaps between floor and wall or around doors, or through cracks in exterior stucco. They move through walls and emerge indoors from sockets or baseboards. Plumbing is associated with perforations around the house. So if you don’t have enough sealant, ants can get into those areas, too, Smith said.

Ants could sometimes move their entire colony into wall cavities, Fisher said.

“They don’t usually stay there very long, they’re just trying to escape the moisture,” he said. However, “Sometimes they move in and open a shop, so it’s a bit harder for people to get rid of them.”

Once indoors, their favorite rooms tend to be kitchens and bathrooms because they like areas with some moisture and natural food sources.

How to stop ant invasions?

When ants arrive, the best solution is to use ant baits with sugar and borax or boric acid, such as B. the Terro brand. Place the self-contained bait stations in areas where you’ll see ants invading or traveling — and most importantly, “Don’t mess with the ants that start taking the bait,” Zach Smith said.

The ants bring the bait back to the nest to share. So if you start spraying them, the bait will not be able to do its job.

Another good strategy is to trace the ants back to their outdoor source and place the traps there if possible, which Fisher says will lure them away and discourage them from congregating indoors.

Keep in mind that the process will likely take some time, the experts said.

“Allow the ants to feed on the bait, which could take weeks,” Fisher said. “Don’t put the bait on the kitchen counter unless you have the patience to watch ants for weeks.”

Also, resist the urge to spray the ants with over-the-counter products, he said. This temporary solution can keep them from going to a certain area, but not leaving it for good.

When do I need to call an exterminator?

Calls to pest control companies are typically reactive responses to ant invasions, Fisher said. He advised taking proactive steps to keep ants at bay before you have a problem.

This strategy worked for Madison Smith, who lives in San Francisco.

“This year we were able to overtake them early enough to avoid a major invasion,” Smith said. “Our tree outside has a root system that extends below the foundation of our house, and we think the ants got in through the rat screen in the basement.”

She said after an exterminator she hired a few years ago had success with Optigard ant bait gel, she now buys it from Amazon and uses it herself.

“While it doesn’t necessarily stop them from getting in, it stops the invasion within 36 hours and works better than any other baiting system we’ve tried,” she said.

But if what you’re doing isn’t helping, it might be time to call in a professional.

“Often people do it themselves but lack confidence and may be on the right track but give up,” said Zach Smith, owner of a pest control company in San Jose. “We can take care of it”

“We know our products and may need to come back a few times,” he said.

How do I prevent ants in the future?

Depending on the season or what is happening in their colonies, ants look for either sugar or protein. Tsutsui said Argentine ants generally have a sweet tooth and are particularly attracted to anything sweet, from soda to honey to leftover candy.

“However, in spring and summer, they need more protein to feed the large numbers of growing baby ants in their nests,” he said. “During these times of population growth, Argentine ants often swarm on higher-protein foods, such as: B. Pet food left unattended.”

Start repelling ants early to avoid infestations. Now is a good time to reduce the ant population before it gets warm. Also, keep your home as clean as possible, inside and out.

Zach Smith recommends clearing outdoor clutter, including tarps and stacks of firewood, which can attract ants and rodents. Old tree stumps are also a popular hiding place.

He also advises getting kitchen appliances, including the stove and dishwasher, out and cleaning behind them.

Reach Kellie Hwang: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @KellieHwang

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Public Works says it distributed over 15,000 sandbags to residents during the recent storms. Photo: Tayfun CoÅkun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

With rain and stormy weather forecast for the foreseeable future, city officials, including the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, want you to know the following to stay safe:

Avoid driving in heavy rain and wind.

• If you must be on the road, do not drive through flooded areas and do not drive over broken power lines.

Sweep up the trash and leaves outside your houses when it’s not raining so they don’t clog the storm drains.

• Better yet, sign up for the city’s Adopt-a-Drain program and make sure drains in your neighborhood are cleared year-round.

sandbags are available to San Francisco residents and business owners.

Use 911 only for life-threatening emergencies so operators are not overwhelmed.

• Call 311 (or use the 311 app) to report the impact of the storms, such as flooding or downed trees.

have flashlights or headlamps handy in case your power goes out. It’s also good to have water and non-perishable food on hand for about three days.

• If you lose power, PG&E recommends unplugging or turning off your equipment to avoid overloading circuits when power returns.
• You can also use this card to check the status of your power supply and sign up for notifications about outages in your area.

At high tide becomes a threat in your area, the NWS suggests carrying an emergency evacuation kit with insurance information and necessary medication for quick evacuation.

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Small hailstones fell in parts of San Francisco Wednesday morning, products of an as yet unsettled weather system that could bring more lashing winds and thunderstorms to parts of the Bay Area.

The National Weather Service issued a warning that pea-sized hail could also be expected in parts of Alameda, Contra Costa and San Mateo counties by early morning.

The morning’s stormy weather should give way to calmer conditions Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco as the extratropical cyclone, which brought violent winds, rainstorms and the attendant threat of landslides to an already sodden Bay Area, moves south, according to Chronicle weather forecaster Gerry Diaz .

Thunderstorms were most likely forming Wednesday along the coasts of Sonoma and Santa Cruz, as well as in the highlands of Napa County, the coast of San Francisco Bay, and the low-lying regions of Solano and Contra Costa counties.

WEATHER EXPLANATION BY @NWSBayArea https://t.co/zzEUc2n0qt pic.twitter.com/ifYF6IjObO

— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) March 29, 2023

Winds were expected to reach between 30 and 35 miles per hour in the Bay Area.

In San Francisco, too, the weather conditions caused temperatures to drop – low enough to set a daily record.

On Tuesday, temperatures in the city dropped to 51 degrees, one degree below the 52-degree record set in 2006.

Reach Dominic Fracassa: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com

The post Hail reported in elements of San Francisco as storms transfer in appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Shelley Mack checks the damage to her car from a fallen eucalyptus tree at her rental home in Concord, California on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. At least five trees fell during Tuesday’s powerful storm, destroying utility lines and crushing several cars and carports. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

The same urban canopy that brought so much relief to the Bay Area in summer is now taking a winter toll when hundreds of trees, weakened by years of drought, collapse in relentless rain and wind — taking lives, buildings and roads.

“Like us humans, it takes a little time to recover from stress, lack of water and high summer temperatures,” said urban area ecologist Alessandro Ossola of UC Davis. “Some of our trees can’t adapt to newly wet soil and atmospheric conditions…they just aren’t able to cope when climate and environmental conditions change too quickly.”

In nature, fallen trees are not a problem, but an advantage. They renew the forest by providing a home for fungi, insects, wildlife and sunlit space for new seedlings.

But in neighborhoods they were destructive and deadly. On Tuesday, during the latest in a series of powerful atmospheric flow storms, trees across the Bay Area claimed the lives of five people – from all walks of life and different circumstances.

RELATED: Living With Trees: What You Need to Know About Storm Protection and Insurance Coverage

In San Francisco, 36-year-old Ryan Taylor, visiting from Las Vegas, was killed by a fallen tree on Post and Polk streets. Qiaoying Han, 55, of San Francisco, was waiting at a bus stop near 23rd Avenue and Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park when a large branch snapped in the wind and landed on her.

Walnut Creek-based attorney Thomas Huster, 79, was killed while driving home from dinner with his wife at Rossmoor Seniors’ Community when a gum tree crushed their Tesla. In Portola Valley, 29-year-old Jesus Ivan Cruz had just finished a plumbing job when a tree fell on his white van on Alpine Road west of Interstate 280. On Lake Merritt in Oakland, Louisiana, a native of Tyrone Butler, who was devoted to church and music, was killed in his tent.

At least three others have died from falling trees since the storms hit northern California late last year, including a 2-year-old child.

CHP vehicles block traffic on Alpine Road in California’s Portola Valley where a falling tree struck a truck, killing it, Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

Trees have also damaged homes, crushed cars, blocked roads and downed power lines. Arborists are struggling to keep up with demand.

“Every day we had one emergency after another,” said Blair Glenn of the Saratoga Tree Service. This week, Glenn and his crew worked like aerial surgeons with ropes and chainsaws, removing a sequoia from an elegant Mediterranean home and an Atlas cedar from a church. “I have a list of 20 other calls and I can’t get them all. And a lot of those jobs are pretty tricky.”

In Concord, Shelley Mack listed her losses in the winter: A gazebo. koi pond. Fences. animal enclosure. water pipes. A PG&E transformer and power lines. A car port. part of a terrace. A Ford Fusion Hybrid car. A white SUV.

“Every time it rains, we freak out,” said Mack of BBB Pet Rescue, where nine out of 40 eucalyptus trees have fallen this winter – and the rest are leaning dangerously. With her elderly landlady unable to pay for the tree felling and no help available from the city, county, Red Cross, or FEMA, she is desperate to raise funds.

• Shelley Mack is almost completely blocked by fallen eucalyptus trees at her rental home in Concord, California on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. At least five trees fell during Tuesday’s violent storm, destroying utility lines and crushing several cars and carports. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

• A drone view of fallen gum trees at Shelley Mack’s rental home in Concord, California on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. At least five trees fell during Tuesday’s violent storm, knocking out utility lines, destroying several cars and the carport. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

• The roots of a fallen eucalyptus tree are uncovered on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 at Shelley Mack’s rental home in Concord, California. At least five trees fell during Tuesday’s violent storm, downing utility lines and destroying several cars and the carport. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Some of the region’s greatest trees have met their fate. The giant oak tree was lost at V. Sattui Winery in Napa Valley, where thousands of visitors once picnicked. A venerable stone pine tree – a stronghold for generations of children – also fell in Mitchell Park in Palo Alto. Stern Grove in San Francisco lost about 120 trees.

Winds tore off the trunk of one of the oldest plants in the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens, a sequoia that grew before the campus was founded. As it fell, it struck an ancient horse chestnut tree.

“A historic tree has wiped out another historic tree. There’s splinters and logs everywhere,” said Andrew Doran, the garden’s director of collections. The storm also claimed an endangered Picea spruce, part of the garden’s only Parana pine, an unusual species of eucalyptus and a gumleaf cone shrub native to southern Africa.

A strong prevailing wind with saturated soils can eventually overcome a root system’s anchorage, especially if a tree has been stressed by drought, said Dave Mason, spokesman for the East Bay Regional Park District.

Even healthy trees can be damaged by sustained winds in excess of 50 miles per hour, experts said. But wind from unusual directions can cause damage at lower wind speeds. Short gusts of wind can snap trunks if there is a weak point.

Branch breakage may not be a bug, but a survival strategy for trees, said Mark Vande Pol, who has a decades-old native plant restoration project on his land in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He said that some trees, such as For example, a genetic variant of the living coastal oak, bark “teeth” appear to be designed to fall off under extreme stress.

A massive fir tree sheared off a bedroom at Don Saputo and Dani Piserchio’s home on Bear Creek Road in Boulder Creek on Tuesday. (Shmuel Thaler/Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Heavy rains and winds are particularly problematic for some large evergreen tree species, which leave their leaves “on” during the winter storm season, experts said. The leaves store water and act as sails for fast winds. The dense canopies of oak and horse chestnut trees also trap snow, causing chaos during February’s storm. In contrast, deciduous tree species are significantly less susceptible to weather damage.

However, according to Matt Ritter, a professor of botany at Cal Poly, no particular species tips over more often than others. For example, although eucalyptus has a bad reputation, there is no data to back it up. Their problems are only more obvious because they’re so widespread, he said.

“We’re moving on,” Doran said as he plans how best to restore UC Berkeley’s iconic garden. “It’s a tremendous loss, and we’re emotionally attached to plants. But it paves the way for a whole host of other things.”

The post Why are so many Bay Space bushes turning harmful and lethal in latest storms? The reply is years within the making – Santa Cruz Sentinel appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

If you’re looking for a silver lining to the grueling storms sweeping California, then look no further than the state’s snowpack.

On Tuesday, California mountain snow contained more than twice the water content considered average for this time of year, the Times’ Mike Ives reported. That’s important, because as the Sierra Nevada’s snow melts in the warmer months, it typically provides about 30 percent of California’s water supply.

“With snow cover as it is right now, about 200 percent for most of the Sierra Nevada, that’s a great thing for California,” said Chris Hintz, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office, Wednesday.

With news of the replenished snowpack, you may be wondering what impact the recent storms will have on the current drought, which began in 2020 and has spanned the three driest years on record in the state. Could these downpours be enough to end our dry spell?

Well, experts say the atmospheric fluxes hitting the Golden State will no doubt help, but probably won’t be enough to fully reverse the drought.

“These storms are really good news, and they’re exactly the news we need at this time, but we still have a long way to go,” said Alex Hall, the director of the Center for Climate Science at UCLA. “We would need a few wet years in a row in California to feel like we’ve weathered the drought here.

In short, one major storm (or even six) isn’t enough to reverse years of minimal rainfall and rising temperatures. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist also at UCLA, compared the storms to dousing a neglected potted plant: The water, while welcome, cannot be fully absorbed at once, will not eliminate future water needs, and will not necessarily repair all of the damage caused by the neglect have arisen.

“You can’t just dump a ton of water on the ground and expect ecosystems to magically recover or groundwater to magically recover,” Swain told me.

Water supplies to many of the state’s largest reservoirs, including Shasta and Oroville, remain below historical averages for this time of year. And we don’t know what comes after these atmospheric fluxes subside, which is expected to begin late next week.

California’s rainiest months are typically December through February, but there’s no guarantee the rain will last until the end of the rainy season. The remainder of 2023 could be very dry, resulting in an average water year overall despite these torrential storms. “It wouldn’t be unprecedented for us to have very little rainfall in the coming months following this storm sequence,” Hall told me.

More on California

• A missed opportunity: California downpours could have been saved for future droughts. But water officials and experts say state bureaucracy designed to allocate water fairly has got in the way.
• Bruce’s Beach: The Bruce family won restitution of an oceanfront property near Los Angeles that had been confiscated from their relatives, two black entrepreneurs, nearly a century ago. Her decision to sell the land for $20 million sparked a new debate about reparations.
• State of emergency Covid: The state’s coronavirus emergency declaration, which gave Gov. Gavin Newsom sweeping powers to slow the spread of the virus, expires on February 28.
• After the tragedy: California reels after back-to-back mass shooting in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay.

Even if the drought ends, it probably won’t stay that way for long if California’s recent climate history is any guide, The Times’ Henry Fountain reported.

According to the US Drought Monitor, the state has had four prolonged droughts this century – 2001-04, 2007-09, 2012-16 and the current one. Between each of these droughts, there was only a few years of wet weather—often extremely wet weather, as is happening now.

“What we’re seeing is what I and others refer to as whiplash,” said Peter Gleick, co-founder and senior fellow at the Pacific Institute, a research organization specializing in water issues. “We don’t seem to get average years anymore.”

tell us: How are the storms affecting you? Email us with your stories and photos at CAToday@nytimes.com.

Where we are traveling

Today’s tip comes from Liz DiMarco Weinmann:

“My favorite places in California are the Sonoma and Napa wine regions, San Francisco and the Carmel/Monterey region. I love Carmel/Monterey so much I convinced my husband that we need to spend the whole of February (65 degrees most days, sunny oh yes) there – instead of the miserable, cold, gray, snowy Northeast, where we live.

We’re at the point in our career where we can work anywhere, so we’re coming to Carmel. I’ve already put aside my sherbet sweaters, lightweight leggings and comfy kicks. I even scheduled my New York haircuts in December and January around my departure date. We get pushed out of the wazoo. We will do it!”

Tell us about your favorite places in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We will share more in future editions of the newsletter.

And before you go, some good news

Thousands of people descend on Cypress, an Orange County suburb, hoping to catch a glimpse of a bird of prey that has mysteriously made its way far from home.

The snowy owl’s natural habitat is the inhospitable frozen wilderness of the high arctic tundra. But one has appeared on the palm-lined streets of Southern California. “It’s like seeing Santa Claus on the beach,” Nancy Caruso, a neighbor who saw the owl, told The Times. “So out of place but cool.”

From time to time the owl, which first appeared in November, goes out to look for a rat or a gopher under the night sky. But the owl keeps coming back.

“It’s the last thing on earth you’d expect there,” David Bell, a Los Angeles Birders board member who found himself among the crowd of people marveling at the animal when it first appeared, told SFGate. “You think to yourself that it can’t possibly be real, and then it spins its head. Yes, it’s real.”

Thank you for reading. I will come back tomorrow. — Soumya

PS Here is today’s mini crossword.

Briana Scalia, Isabella Grullón Paz and Shivani Gonzalez have contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

Sign up here to receive this newsletter in your inbox.

The post California Storms Assist Relieve Drought, However How A lot Is in Query appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

If you’re looking for a silver lining to the grueling storms sweeping California, then look no further than the state’s snowpack.

On Tuesday, California mountain snow contained more than twice the water content considered average for this time of year, the Times’ Mike Ives reported. That’s important, because as the Sierra Nevada’s snow melts in the warmer months, it typically provides about 30 percent of California’s water supply.

“With snow cover as it is right now, about 200 percent for most of the Sierra Nevada, that’s a great thing for California,” said Chris Hintz, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office, Wednesday.

With news of the replenished snowpack, you may be wondering what impact the recent storms will have on the current drought, which began in 2020 and has spanned the three driest years on record in the state. Could these downpours be enough to end our dry spell?

Well, experts say the atmospheric fluxes hitting the Golden State will no doubt help, but probably won’t be enough to fully reverse the drought.

“These storms are really good news, and they’re exactly the news we need at this time, but we still have a long way to go,” said Alex Hall, the director of the Center for Climate Science at UCLA. “We would need a few wet years in a row in California to feel like we’ve weathered the drought here.

In short, one major storm (or even six) isn’t enough to reverse years of minimal rainfall and rising temperatures. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist also at UCLA, compared the storms to dousing a neglected potted plant: The water, while welcome, cannot be fully absorbed at once, will not eliminate future water needs, and will not necessarily repair all of the damage caused by the neglect have arisen.

“You can’t just dump a ton of water on the ground and expect ecosystems to magically recover or groundwater to magically recover,” Swain told me.

Water supplies to many of the state’s largest reservoirs, including Shasta and Oroville, remain below historical averages for this time of year. And we don’t know what comes after these atmospheric fluxes subside, which is expected to begin late next week.

California’s rainiest months are typically December through February, but there’s no guarantee the rain will last until the end of the rainy season. The remainder of 2023 could be very dry, resulting in an average water year overall despite these torrential storms. “It wouldn’t be unprecedented for us to have very little rainfall in the coming months following this storm sequence,” Hall told me.

Even if the drought ends, it probably won’t stay that way for long if California’s recent climate history is any guide, The Times’ Henry Fountain reported.

According to the US Drought Monitor, the state has had four prolonged droughts this century – 2001-04, 2007-09, 2012-16 and the current one. Between each of these droughts, there was only a few years of wet weather—often extremely wet weather, as is happening now.

“What we’re seeing is what I and others refer to as whiplash,” said Peter Gleick, co-founder and senior fellow at the Pacific Institute, a research organization specializing in water issues. “We don’t seem to get average years anymore.”

tell us: How are the storms affecting you? Email us with your stories and photos at CAToday@nytimes.com.

For more:

Where we are traveling

Today’s tip comes from Liz DiMarco Weinmann:

“My favorite places in California are the Sonoma and Napa wine regions, San Francisco and the Carmel/Monterey region. I love Carmel/Monterey so much I convinced my husband that we need to spend the whole of February (65 degrees most days, sunny oh yes) there – instead of the miserable, cold, gray, snowy Northeast, where we live.

We’re at the point in our career where we can work anywhere, so we’re coming to Carmel. I’ve already put aside my sherbet sweaters, lightweight leggings and comfy kicks. I even scheduled my New York haircuts in December and January around my departure date. We get pushed out of the wazoo. We will do it!”

Tell us about your favorite places in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We will share more in future editions of the newsletter.

And before you go, some good news

Thousands of people descend on Cypress, an Orange County suburb, hoping to catch a glimpse of a bird of prey that has mysteriously made its way far from home.

The snowy owl’s natural habitat is the inhospitable frozen wilderness of the high arctic tundra. But one has appeared on the palm-lined streets of Southern California. “It’s like seeing Santa Claus on the beach,” Nancy Caruso, a neighbor who saw the owl, told The Times. “So out of place but cool.”

From time to time the owl, which first appeared in November, goes out to look for a rat or a gopher under the night sky. But the owl keeps coming back.

“It’s the last thing on earth you’d expect there,” David Bell, a Los Angeles Birders board member who found himself among the crowd of people marveling at the animal when it first appeared, told SFGate. “You think to yourself that it can’t possibly be real, and then it spins its head. Yes, it’s real.”

Thank you for reading. I will come back tomorrow. — Soumya

PS Here is today’s mini crossword.

Briana Scalia, Isabella Grullón Paz and Shivani Gonzalez have contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

Sign up here to receive this newsletter in your inbox.

The post California Storms Assist Relieve Drought, However How A lot Is in Query appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.