Heavy rains hit Cambria, more expected before Christmas Day

A wind-and-rainstorm Thursday and Friday, Dec. 15 and 16, dumped more than 5.15 inches of rain on the Rocky Butte area northeast of San Simeon, more than 4.25 inches on the upper Santa Rosa Creek Road area and about 2 inches on most of urban Cambria and San Simeon.

A crackle-and-snap power blip Thursday, which startled a roomful of people at a Cambria Community Services District meeting in the Veterans Memorial Building, also sparked a power outage for more than 300 PG&E customers.

According to PG&E meteorologist John Lindsey, falling trees near 1665 Burton Drive had taken down a power line, leaving 381 customers without power. With PG&E troublemen Nick Molnar, Stan Weaver and Charles Briggs on the job, all but seven customers were back online within six hours, and electricity was restored to the rest by 9:57 p.m.

The official start of winter may have been a week away when the storm hit, but people out and about in the chilly, windy, rainy storm certainly couldn’t tell the difference. The resemblance to winter remained overnight for a couple of days, when low temperatures on the North Coast were in the 30s and frost could be seen in some chillier areas, such as the fields near Highway 46 and down in the Tin Village area.

According to Lindsey, an emailed forecast from on Tuesday, Dec. 20, another cold front should pass through the area Friday night, Dec. 23, bringing with it “strong to gale-force winds” of up to 38 mph, along with heavy rain.

Rain was predicted through Saturday morning, Dec. 24, with showers, lower temperatures and winds again up to 38 mph in the afternoon and night. “Generally chilly and clear weather is forecast on Christmas,” Lindsey wrote, with longer-range models indicating “unsettled weather for most of next week.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2016 at 10:25 AM with the headline "Heavy rains hit Cambria, more expected before Christmas Day."