Storms soak the peninsula, down trees, knock out power

Winds with gusts of up to 48 mph knocked down trees across the Tiburon Peninsula March 21-22 — including damaging this parked Ford F-150 on Ridge Road in Tiburon — and taking out power to nearly 2,300 people. (via town of Tiburon)

The windy and wet bomb cyclone storm that walloped the Bay Area last week dumped nearly 3 inches of rain on the Tiburon Peninsula, felling trees all over town and sending first responders scrambling to close streets and clear downed wires.

Nearly 2,300 Tiburon customers lost power during periods between 6 a.m. March 21 and 10 p.m. March 22, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. reported.

Residents got a storm preview on March 19, when some 0.88 inches of rain was recorded at Marin County’s Pamela Court weather gauge off Tiburon Boulevard. The region was then pummeled on March 21, with Tiburon’s 24-hour rain total, beginning at 7 a.m., at another 1.84 inches. Winds also blasted the area, with the National Weather Service’s Sugarloaf Drive station recording gusts of 48 mph the afternoon of March 21, according to service meteorologist Alexis Clouser.

It was the state’s 12th atmospheric-river storm since Christmas, which according to the U.S. Drought Monitor helped lift 45% of California, including all of Marin County, out of drought conditions as of March 14 — 49% by early March 21, before the storms hit. The Pamela Court gauge has recorded 38.41 inches of rain from the Oct. 1 start of the water season through March 27, compared with 27.58 inches the year prior.

But the storms have also led to fatalities — five people were killed in the Bay Area in storm incidents last week — as well as flooding, tornadoes, mudslides and other destruction. PG&E reported March 21 was its worst single day for Bay Area outages since 1995, with 210,000 customers losing power at some point.

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