SAN FRANCISCO — A third winter-like storm in a week brought rain and strong winds to much of Northern California and snow to the Sierra Nevada on Sunday. Sheets of rain made for treacherous driving.
One person was injured in an accident on Highway 101 that blocked all lanes near San Rafael, the California Highway Patrol said.
Forecasters said showers and thunderstorms were expected throughout the day, and officials reminded residents to drive slow, saying there is debris and flooding on the freeways. The CHP handled several collisions in the San Francisco Bay Area.
After a lull Saturday, the system moved into parched California overnight packing precipitation, strong winds, lightning, and hail.
The latest storm will dump slightly less rain in the state than the previous systems — with the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley expected to get up to about half an inch, National Weather Service meteorologist Nathan Owen said.
''We'll see a very similar storm to what we had the last round with less rain, but we're expecting a good bit of wind for this system,'' he said.
Central California could also see winds gusting up to 55 miles per hour and higher peaks in the Sierra Nevada could see up to two feet of snow, the weather service said.