VIDEO: Cold Storm Front Dumps Snow On Bay Area's Diablo Range
SUNOL (CBS SF) -- A potent cold weather front that battered the Bay Area overnight left a picturesque wintry postcard behind as snow dusted the tops of the East Bay's Diablo Range.
Helicopter video taken Wednesday just south of the Sunol Regional Wilderness and east of the Calaveras Reservoir looked more like a scene from the Sierras than the peaks just 40 miles south of Livermore.
Several inches of snow fell on the highest peaks as steady overnight rain and hail left roadways throughout the Bay Area flooded, created chaos at local airports and blacked out thousands of homes.
The National Weather Service said 0.94 inches of rain fell by midnight in San Francisco, the wettest calendar day for the city since Valentine's Day 2019. By noon on Wednesday, that total had reached 1.12 inches.
Elsewhere, the storm dumped 1.73 inches of rain on Kentfield, 1.82 inches on Ben Lomond in the Santa Cruz Mountains, 1.22 inches in Soquel and 1.04 inches in Santa Rosa.
Forecasters said the possibility of brief downpours and thundershowers would linger through the day on Wednesday as would additional snowfall along the range.
"Snow levels are expected to drop by about 500 or more feet tonight as showers taper off," forecasters said.
