Residents in Santa Cruz Mountains brace for rare snowfall

SANTA CLARA COUNTY -- One part of the Bay Area where locals were getting ready to cope with rare weather during the upcoming winter storm warning was in the Santa Cruz Mountains along Highway 17.

Right around 5 p.m. Wednesday, snow started falling in the Redwood Estates. Initially, it melted as soon as it hit the ground, but residents were coming out to take pictures and videos of the snowfall and tried to catch snowflakes in their hands.

A short time later the snow was more noticeable but still wasn't heavy enough to accumulate much volume.

Redwood Estates is an unincorporated area in Santa Clara County right off Highway 17 at around 1,600 feet elevation. Most of the people who live in the area are used to strong winter storms, but not necessarily snow.

At the one small grocery store in Redwood Estates, owner Mirian Chi said she has seen a steady stream of people coming into get ready to hunker down.

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"People know to stock up usually around here, so they'll get ice if they don't have a generator. A lot of comfort food and frozen foods, and beer of course. Always beer. People come in and say, oh the power's going to be out so they get extra beer," said Chi.

Store employee Marc Russo said most people who live in the Santa Cruz Mountains are somewhat used to big storms and many have generators. But it's the highway he worries about most.

"It's a mess. Highway 17 is just a mess. Accidents and roll overs," said Russo.

Many residents say they don't plan on leaving the area until the storms are over.

"If it's going to be a snow day, I usually stay home because it's usually only one day," said longtime Redwood Estates resident Judy Anslinger.

"The power was out once last night for about and hour and the internet is out even now, so we're just going to hunker down. That's it, you know," said James Hill, who has lived in Redwood Estates for 53 years.

Highway 17 is known for being treacherous during rain storms. With the anticipated snow, it could be almost unpassable.

"These are some really unusual meteorological conditions for us. We don't usually see in the forecast snow in the Santa Cruz Mountains," said Caltrans District 5 spokesperson Kevin Drabinski.

The last time it snowed in the Santa Cruz Mountains was in February of 2019. Even though snow is rare, Caltrans crews and CHP officers will be out 24 hours a day over the next couple days monitoring road conditions and trying to keep the roads safe.

"We can come with trucks with blades in the front of them to clear any snowfall off the roadway. Those same trucks can drop sand in back of them that will help with traction," said Drabinski.

Caltrans said they're going to do everything possible to keep the roads open, but if conditions on Highway 17 get to dangerous, they could be forced to close the road until things improve. They ask of drivers to stay off the roads during the storms unless absolutely necessary.

In:
• Santa Cruz Mountains
• Snow Storm