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California Rain Storms Bring Major SFO Flight Delays, Snow At Tahoe Ski Resorts

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) — Rain, fog and wind gusts triggered hours of flight delays at San Francisco's airport on a busy post-Thanksgiving Sunday, while Sierra Nevada ski resorts that have stocked up on artificial-snow machines in the drought enjoyed a few inches of the real stuff.

Weekend storms moving across Northern California brought a foot of snow to the Sierra's Donner Pass, and the storms moving in from the coast were bringing several more inches of snow to northern mountains by Monday morning, the National Weather Service said.

At the Boreal Mountain Resort near Lake Tahoe, skiers under low, gray clouds were making turns Sunday on 9 inches of snow that fell since Friday night.

"We're all skiers and riders up here," said Tess Hobbs, a spokeswoman at the ski resort, "we love to have those powder days."

The same storms brought at least trace amounts of rain to the region. Dozens of cities including San Jose received a half-inch or more.

Reduced visibility at San Francisco International Airport forced airport officials to scale back the number of hourly flights in and out from 60 to about 25, airport duty manager Dan Dinnocenti said.

Many travelers experienced delays of two hours or more, he said.

In Southern California, rains in the Malibu area covered part of the Pacific Coast Highway in mud, rocks and debris from a former wildfire area, leaving about a dozen vehicles stranded and forcing the closure of the highway at least through Monday, authorities said.

The troubles stood in contrast to the light-but-rare rains that fell on other Southern California cities, with just trace amounts recorded in downtown Los Angeles and surrounding areas. Some spots including Burbank and Long Beach had heavier rains closer to a half-inch.

The northern Sierras stood at just 76 percent of normal precipitation for this point in what meteorologists call the water year, which starts Oct. 1, National Weather Service forecaster Holly Osborne said.

Still, a series of back-to-back storms in November already have made this year better than last year, when it took until February for the Sierras to get as much rain and snow as they have now, Osborne said.

Sierra snowpack, a key water source for much of the state, sank to its second-lowest level in 90 years last year.

California's $2 billion ski-resort industry has invested heavily to cope with less snow, scaling up production of man-made snow and removing obstacles that required heavy coverage on ski runs.

These days, California resorts "don't need a skiing surface of more than a few inches," said Bob Roberts, executive director of the California Ski Industry Association. "In my day, they needed 4 or 5 feet to cover the rocks."

Another storm system moving into the state midweek was expected to bring heavier rain and snow.

 

© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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