Lake County >> Showers brought an average of a little more than an inch of rainfall to the county Sunday and Monday.
Upper Lake received the heaviest downpour with 1.19 inches of rain, according to data collected by the National Weather Service (NWS). Mount Konocti had 1.15 inches, Boggs Mountain 1.03, Kelseyville .89; Cow Mountain and Witter Springs both recorded .87 inches of rain, while Lakeport received the least at .73 inches.
Reports also came in of pea-sized hail throughout the county, as well as some sleet Monday afternoon. Some Northshore residents reported lightning strikes.
The autumnal storm traveling from the Gulf of Alaska sent balmy weekend temperatures plummeting 10 to 20 degrees. Rain and hail mixed with strong winds to slash areas north of Lake County all the way down through the Bay Area.
An intense thunderstorm slammed the Chico area on Monday evening, with high winds and lightning strikes knocking out power for more that 10,000 customers. Six power poles were knocked down along a north Chico road, trapping at least one motorist amongst the live wires. The Enterprise-Record recorded one-third of an inch of rain in just a half hour.
Farther up in the foothills, the hail was more intense. Sheriff’s deputies reported by radio there was an inch on the ground in Magalia at one point.
The storm also hit areas to the south, dumping more than an inch of rain in places from Livermore to the Santa Cruz Mountains.
In the Lake Tahoe area, jubilant ski areas reported up to 8 inches of snow and planned to start snow-making Monday night.
NWS meteorologist Idamis Del Valle said that it’s still too early to tell whether this last rain system was caused by El Niño, the weather phenomenon caused by warming sea temperatures near the equator in the Pacific Ocean. Others termed it a traditional fall storm unrelated to the anticipated winter event.
The storm was wetter than predicted due to a confluence of factors that caused a lingering of “cells,” individual air masses that loop up and down, producing precipitation, said meteorologist Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Services.
Since 1950, California has experienced six strong El Niño events, but Del Valle said that not all have meant above-normal levels of rainfall.
“Precipitation varied widely,” she said. “It’s not a guarantee that we are going to see a lot of rain.” Further adding that “it won’t be enough to end the long-term drought conditions.”
The Climate Prediction Center’s latest report released on Oct. 15 shows that Northern California has between a 33 to 40 percent chance of above-normal precipitation, Del Valle said. In Lake County, the average November rainfall is roughly 3.5 inches with 31.5 inches annually.
Lake County’s weather forecast for the next few days looks sunny and dry, Del Valle said. Average temperatures will be in the low 60s Wednesday and Thursday. Temperatures Friday are predicted to rise slightly to the upper 60s and Saturday will be even warmer in the high 60s and low 70s for most of the county.
Sunday will experience a cooling trend, with temperatures in the low 60s and high 50s. Temperatures are predicted to drop even more Monday to the mid-50s and 40s in some areas.
The next chance of rain, Del Valle said, will be on Monday and last until Tuesday morning with scattered showers. But she noted that conditions may change and the storm system currently does not appear to be as strong as the latest.
Lisa M. Krieger of the Bay Area News Group contributed to this report.
