High Winds Trigger Frigid Wind Chills; Delay Cross Country Flights
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A blustery winter storm buffeted the San Francisco Bay Area early Monday, driving temperatures into the 20s and threatening to dump a dusting of snow on the region's higher peaks.
The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning from midnight Monday to 9 a.m. Tuesday. The North Bay could see temperatures drop to the mid-20s. The East Bay temperatures will be in the upper 20s to low 30s.
Fueled by wind chills early Monday, Santa Rosa tumbled to 21 degrees, Mt. Tam to a frosty 17 degrees and 35 degrees in downtown San Francisco.
While the weather front will have a dramatic impact on temperatures through mid-week, it will not be a major rain or snow producer. However, snow levels will drop to a 1000 feet or lower if any precipitation does fall. Bay Area peaks and the top of the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco could get a dusting of snow.
"The cold air is going to start filtering into the area beginning (Sunday night), but it takes a little time for the coldest air to get here," Drew Peterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The weather service issued a winter weather advisory overnight for the Santa Cruz and Big Sur mountains. And while the advisory expired early Monday for the Santa Cruz Mountains, forecasters warned that 2-4 inches could fall in the area before the front moves on.
The front roared into the Bay Area on Sunday with blustery winds. At a construction site in San Francisco, the wind blew over some scaffolding at a new building near Church and Market streets. No one was hurt, but debris fell all over the sidewalk and into one of the lanes of the roadway.
The energized jet stream also was impacting flights traveling across the country that were running into stiff headwinds. Virgin American spokesman Cole Cosgrove said a handful of flights have had to make unscheduled stops to refuel.
"These trans-continental flights are facing significant headwinds, so they are making planned fuel stops," he told KPIX 5. "We apologize to our guests for the inconvenience."
