Howling winds cause havoc in Central Sierra: Yosemite road closures, power outages
Howling winds knocked down trees in the Sierra on Sunday, forcing road closures in Yosemite National Park and contributing to widespread power outages.
The National Weather Service called a wind advisory for the Mariposa, Madera and Fresno County foothills until Monday evening.
Wawona Road, a continuation of state Highway 41 from Wawona to Yosemite Valley, and Badger Pass Road were closed due to fallen trees as a result of high winds, according to the National Park Service. The closures were expected to extend overnight.
Northern California was experiencing fast-moving winds Sunday, with Sacramento reaching 45 mph, according to the weather service. At Kirkwood Mountain Resort north of Yosemite, a weather station recorded a wind gust of 209 mph, according to the NWS.
In the mountain areas closer to Yosemite, the highest wind speeds reached 76 mph at Cascadel Heights near North Fork at 7 a.m. Sunday. It was still blowing 40 to 50 mph there on Sunday afternoon, said weather service meteorologist Jim Dudley based in Hanford.
Dudley said that a perfect combination of high air pressure in Nevada, low pressure coming from the California shore line and a jet stream from the northeast was the main cause for the high winds in the foothills. He added that wind speeds were expected to increase again overnight in the region.
More than 4,000 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers were without power in the areas North Fork and Bass Lake areas on Sunday, but were slowly getting power back, according to the utility company’s online outage map. The power has mostly been restored by Monday morning less than 1,000 were still being affected.
At 8,700-foot China Peak ski resort above Huntington Lake, winds were not a factor Sunday, said owner Tim Cohee. He said the resort is usually sheltered from the kind of gusts experienced at resorts to the north.
The winds weren’t expected to be a factor on the central San Joaquin Valley floor, Dudley said. It was calm yet Sunday afternoon in Fresno, and Dudley said the stiffest winds in the area would probably be 20-30 mph gusts near Millerton Lake.
This story was originally published February 9, 2020 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Howling winds cause havoc in Central Sierra: Yosemite road closures, power outages."