Good evening, I'm Laura painter.
We start tonight with a winter
storm that showered much of
our area with rain and snow.
A live look now at the Sierra tonight
ABC 10s Luke Clary has been in the
mountains all night long where most
of the day they were showered with
rain before turning into snowfall.
Later in the evening he has a closer
look at how people are coping.
It's been so windy up here in the Sierra,
it's hard to tell at times
whether these blizzards are
actually snow coming from the sky,
or whether it's just blowing up
from the slopes and the rooftops
of the nearby buildings.
But I tell you, what's been coming
down today has been a mix of snow
and rain flurries in the sky,
a welcome sight after a day of
rain on the slopes for borders.
The icy conditions are real
pain in the you know what,
you really hurt my ****.
You take a few falls tonight.
Yeah, definitely.
I'm still, you know,
trying hard to enjoy.
Yeah, we've just been dying.
It's been bad.
The wintry mix of rain and ice.
Not ideal for those who came out to play,
but not a problem for drivers on I-80.
For most of the daytime hours,
conditions worsening into the evening,
with roads covered in a mix
of fresh snow and slush.
But what about the Sierra snowpack?
It definitely has me smiling yet.
We asked the DWR,
how's it holding up against the rain?
Will get a slight bit of milk.
You may see a bigger uptick in rises
in the rivers and creeks and stream,
but for the most part our snowpack
did say roughly where it is now
and actually build and grow.
The DWR says we're right around
an average water year to date.
Upcoming winter storms could
put a dent in the drought,
but we have a long way to go.
It was raining like till
halfway through the day.
This border tells us riding
on ICE was a mistake.
Why was that a mistake?
Ohh. I've been eating crap all day.
Hitting my head on the ice,
I scratched it yesterday. Felt my cheek.
But it's been fun, you know,
as the skiers and boarders limp
palm the fun drawing to a close.
The snow just keeps coming. Ohh,
some brutal conditions.
Look Cleary, thank you.
Another live look at the
roads tonight right now.
This time in the San Joaquin Valley.
You see here fog rolling in and
there's plenty more on the way.
Chief meteorologist Monica Woods is
tracking conditions for us tonight.
Monica, you know that fog has been
really tricky for morning commuters.
You're right about that.
We go from one hazard right into the next.
So we go from the winter
storm right into the fog.
And you can see it's most problematic
in the northern San Joaquin Valley.
However, patches in the foothills as well.
We have a dense fog advisory in effect.
They'll let 11:00 o'clock tomorrow morning
for the San Joaquin Valley stretching
towards the delta with visibility
at times less than 1/4 of a mile.
Our winter storm warning still continues
until 4:00 o'clock in the morning for
the Sierra looking at some blowing
snow and also some hazardous travel.
It is starting to wind down
though at this hour.
Avalanche warning though will stay in place
through 7:00 o'clock tomorrow morning.
It's because of what Luke was describing,
that rain on top of snow and then
snow falling later in the evening.
Now we still have some patches
of snow up in the Sierra.
Most of this again is very spotty.
The widespread stuff has come to
an end for right now and tomorrow.
It's basically a dry day,
but a one that starts off with
quite a bit of fog.
Our total rainfall since midnight is
over an inch for most valley locations.
Kind of hit and miss here,
with totals close to two inches
for Placerville,
and we saw nearly three inches of
rain at South Lake Tahoe before
it turned over to Snow.
Peak wind gusts earlier today,
also causing some damage at 40 to 50 mph.
Quieter night tonight?
Morning fog, then we get into our.
Second storm.
That's going to bring us lighter showers
and some slightly lower snow levels.
But then the storm system #3 comes in.
That is going to have fluctuating snow
levels. Also moderate to heavy rain.
And we're going to be tracking this
all the way through the new year.
Tonight temperatures drop down to near 40.
Again,
areas of dense fog to get us
going on Wednesday.
Laura.
Alright,
Monica, thank you. Now meanwhile,
at least 52 people have died
nationwide as a result of this year's
historic Christmas weekend Storm.
28 of those just in New York's Erie County,
thousands are still without power.
In Western New York,
100 military police are heading
to Buffalo to help manage traffic,
where a driving ban remains in effect.
Officials are begging people
to stay off the roads.
There's a lot of roads that are
completely blocked right now
that have no access whatsoever.
Please, you heard the mayor beg.
I'm begging, stay home.
The next big challenge for Western New York,
rising temperatures and potential
rain have officials worried about
possible flooding later in the week.
The flight chaos continues tonight.
Hundreds of stranded passengers
looking for any way to get home.
If you're trying to book a flight,
here's what travelers are up against.
I searched flights online for tomorrow
and what I found was shocking.
For example, you could get a short
flight from LAX to Sacramento
next month for under 100 bucks,
but if you want that flight tomorrow,
it could cost you nearly 3 grand.
It's a travel nightmare
that won't seem to end.
Southwest Airlines continues
to deal with a crisis that has
left thousands of passengers
stranded all across the country.
The airline cancelled at least
70% of its flights yesterday.
Flight tracking website FlightAware
says it accounted for half of all
airline cancellations worldwide.
How's that for perspective?
The chaos continues today with
144 flights out of SMF canceled.
141 of those flights were
Southwest Airlines flights.
I know that it was going to be a
little hard during the holidays.
But I didn't think it would be like this.
Meanwhile, others are navigating
a labyrinth of luggage.
It's just incredible that all of
this luggage belongs to people
that aren't here right now.
And SMF spokesperson says Luggage is
the responsibility of the airlines.
But SMF has offered to open up
secure rooms to hold luggage.
We also have stepped up security
of guarding that luggage on the
ground floor with our sheriff's
team and operations staff.
It's kind of scary, but it's more
frustrating than anything because
I just want to get back home,
and especially for school too.
I don't want to miss any school.
Because of this, how
did all this happen?
It has to do with the way
SW operates its flights.
Southwest is based in Dallas,
but the airline doesn't use a hub and
spoke structure like most major carriers.
Instead, Southwest uses what's
called a point to point model,
meaning they can offer more direct
flights but have less ability to
recover when things don't go to plan,
leaving their crews out of position for
their next routes and people missing
their holiday celebrations. It's
just been frustrating because
I have. I'm a single parent,
I have to get home.
My children are there waiting for me.
I'm supposed to be at work today.
Now I gotta call them
and say. I can't
be there, President Biden tweeted.
His administration is working to
ensure airlines are held accountable.
the US Department of Transportation
released a statement saying the department
is quote concerned by Southwest,
unacceptable rates of
cancellations and delays,
and reports of lack of prompt customer
service saying they will look into
whether cancellations were controllable.
I myself was trapped in San Diego
International Airport all day yesterday
and missed anchoring our newscast
because my Southwest flight for
Christmas Day was cancelled and delayed.
I'm one of the lucky ones.
I even managed to get my luggage on time.
But if you're trying to rebook
flights through southwest right now,
that LAX to Sacramento flight
I showed you earlier,
there isn't one until New Year's Eve,
four days from now,
and there are only two flights on
that route that normally has 13.