Image: Educational-Title761 via Reddit

• The AlertSF system sent out warnings to San Franciscans to avoid multiple areas due to "obstructions" that are likely downed trees or tree limbs. These areas included Union Street / Hyde Street, Mission Street / Van Ness Avenue, Pierce Street / Post Street, the area near 122 Guerrero Street, and the area near 155 Fell Street. [SFist]
• High winds overnight took off a big piece of roof from an apartment complex in South San Francisco. [KPIX]
• A 69-mph wind gust was recorded this morning at SFO. [IEMbotMTR/Twitter]
• Around 100,000 PG&E customers were without power at one point Tuesday morning, with San Jose among the hardest hit areas. [KTVU]
• A 275-year-old oak tree toppled in the picnic area outside V. Sattui Winery in Napa on Monday. [NBC Bay Area]
• Multiple major roadways were blocked by downed trees and power lines in Danville and Walnut Creek. [KTVU]
• Elon Musk's Twitter has restored the accounts of election deniers Ali Alexander and Ron Watkins — the latter of whom, along with his father Jim Watkins, has been suggested as a possible original source of the QAnon conspiracy. [CNN]
• A search has been called off for a five-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters in Paso Robles on Monday, after his mother's vehicle became stuck and inundated. [Associated Press]
• Montecito resident Ellen DeGeneres posted video of a raging creek saying "Mother Nature is not happy with us." [Ellen DeGeneres/Twitter]

A hail shower Wednesday morning in Santa Rosa reportedly led to a six-car crash in the western part of the city, and possibly also to a big-rig crash involving three vehicles on 101.

A significant amount of hail fell between 9:30 and 10 a.m. Wednesday in isolated parts of Sonoma County, and one squall has reportedly led to a six-car crash on Guerneville Road between Fulton and Willowside roads. Local resident Mike Kobler reported on the crash on social media, saying to avoid the area.

Update: The accumulation of hail looked like snow or slush on the road in Santa Rosa, as the Sonoma County Sheriff's Twitter account shows us.

West Sonoma County resident @ogreggory on Twitter posted the video below showing the hail shower. There have not been any other reports of hail broadly in the county since several showers on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service confirmed that it was seeing reports of "small hail pile up" in and around Santa Rosa.

A separate crash occurred around the same time on Highway 101 north of the Hopper Avenue off-ramp. A big rig was reportedly in the center divide, with three vehicles involved, and another vehicle blocking the right-hand lane.

It's not yet clear whether the hailstorm played a role in this crash. We'll update you as we learn more.

Today's moderate to heavy rains in SF came with a surprise bout of thunder and lightning. What's up with that?

A thunderclap hit at about 1:16 p.m. Thursday, and it was cause for some surprise in San Francisco given that a) we rarely get thunderstorms in warmer months, and b) this is January. Also, there have been many reports of hail around the city, via Twitter.

As this explainer has it, the phenomenon of lightning in a winter storm is called "thundersnow," and it's fairly common in the Midwest and in strong nor'easters. "Thundersnow requires very strong upward vertical air movement within a winter storm, and is usually associated with highly baroclinic low pressure systems with a source of warmer air (not necessarily above freezing) wrapping into the storm. The warmer air ingested into the system helps to introduce instability into the cold sector of the storm, which along with the ambient upward vertical motion can produce prolific lightning activity."

So, this frigid storm blowing in from Alaska is running into some warmer air, and thus: lightning and thunder. Also, it snowed on Mount Diablo in the East Bay today.

Stay dry and warm, everybody! The sun is allegedly going to poke out by the end of the afternoon!

Drive safely, #SantaRosa! Make sure to turn your headlights on, your wipers on, and reduce your speed when driving in the rain. pic.twitter.com/98ADrv53Rc

— Santa Rosa Police (@Santa_Rosa_PD) September 13, 2017

Some more thunder and lightning blew through the Bay Area early this morning, mostly affecting parts of the East Bay around Lafayette and Antioch, and the Monterey peninsula down south. As the Chronicle reports via the National Weather Service, there were some 1,700+ lightning flashes between 2:30 a.m. and about 6:15 a.m. Wednesday, but fewer cloud-to-ground strikes than there were during Monday night's storm.

Monday's storm brought more than 1,200 lightning strikes and approximately 7,000 lightning flashes, as the Mercury News reported, with wind gusts over 50 mph.

Above, a video of pea-sized hail falling Wednesday morning in Santa Rosa, via the Santa Rosa PD, uploaded at 7:30 a.m.

Previously: Photos: Freak September Thunderstorm Brings 1200+ Lightning Strikes

@kcraFinan funnel cloud near Lincoln, CA 2 mins ago. Reminded me of my OKlahoma days. pic.twitter.com/1QPNJVZ3Cf

— Eric Clark (@ercla) June 11, 2017

An intense weather system moved through parts of the Bay Area Sunday bringing hail, thunder, lightning, snow, and even a funnel cloud, marking one of the weirder June storms in recent memory.

Twitterers in Napa and Sonoma noted the hail coming down between 5 and 6 p.m. Sunday, and quickly there were also reports of snow making a return appearance in the higher elevations of the Sierras.

ABC 7 reports that at least nine lightning strikes were recorded in a 15-minute period, many of them between Novato and Davis.

KCRA reports that a funnel cloud was spotted just taking shape over Lincoln, California around 3:40 p.m.

Snowbrains has a photo tour of the snow in the Tahoe area yesterday evening. As the National Weather Service Reno bureau reports, snowfall totals were around one to two inches, but Incline Village, NV saw six inches.

They add that this isn't totally unusual. "Measurable snow falls at Tahoe City, CA (6200′) about every 5-10 years, often following active winters like the historic 2016/2017 season," says the NWS.

Sledding at Mt. Diablo. #snow #brrr #eastbay pic.twitter.com/GgYHp8Ofbw

— Lilian Kim (@liliankim7) March 6, 2017

As the mercury dropped Sunday, the strange, mercurial precipitation — with rain one moment, rainbows the next, and even, at times, hail — might be back to baffle us all again today. First, proof that those freezing droplets weren't just your imagination or some kind of collective delusion:

The hail caused some very real problems, like two vehicle collisions according to NBC Bay Area as California Highway Patrol urged caution and predicted delays.

According to KRON4's meteorologist Ann Hong, that weirdness may return today. Heavy rains were falling in the East Bay this morning, and in the areas of Danville, Oakland, and Concord, temperatures are cold enough for more hail. San Francisco, dry at the moment after early morning showers, could see rain again soon.

Another natural phenomenon that prompted a sanity check: Several Bay Area mountaintops were covered in snow on Sunday, as were roads like Highway 9 and Skyline Boulevard in the Saratoga area. The National Weather Service told the Associated Press that snow also graced Mount Diablo, Mount Hamilton, and Mount Tamalpais.

All in all, this recent weather feels like it's moving at double time, accelerating as in this literally sped-up video of yesterdays weather, a timelapse from the Twin Peaks weather bot we highlighted in February. Keep an eye out for a flash of rainbow:

Previously: Weekend Storm Brings Hail And Rainbows To The Bay, Blizzard In Tahoe

Beautiful Rainbow #GoldenGateBridge #SanFrancisco this morning - via David Yu pic.twitter.com/xqOQgiWAQV

— Charlene ☕ 🇺🇸 (@FreshRoasters) March 5, 2017

A storm Saturday night and into Sunday morning dumped over an inch of rain in San Francisco and brought with it scattered hail showers that passed through until afternoon on Sunday. As CBS 5 reports, even though "the front had moved eastward by day break on Sunday... the unstable air left behind could trigger brief downpours, thundershowers and hail during the day."

In moving eastward, the storm also brought a ton of new snow to the already very snowy Sierra Nevada region.

Also with the storm, there were rainbows.

Meanwhile, in Tahoe, as much as three feet of snow fell overnight, shutting down I-80 and stranding some weekend skiers up there for the time being.

Whoa with the hail tonight in SF pic.twitter.com/11hJhaH5ZK

— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) December 11, 2015

Did you hear it? Did you see it? Storms last night brought with them the rare bit of Bay Area thunder and the even rarer case of hail — and with predictions of additional rain today, we hope you have an umbrella.

Expected to accompany this afternoon's rain are dangerous beach conditions, with a National Weather Service high surf warning spelling out the very real danger.

"Extreme wave run up is expected with these waves with long lulls in between wave sets...increasing the risk of being washed into the sea by a wave," reads the warning. "This will result in very dangerous swimming conditions...and deadly rip currents."

So, maybe postpone that Ocean Beach walk with Fluffy?

Lightning, rain, and hail were spread across the Bay Area Thursday night, with reports of especially heavy precipitation in El Cerrito.

Interstate 580 in Oakland even partially flooded, reports Kron 4, causing several early morning crashes.

As we head deeper into the predicted "Godzilla El Niño," expect to see repeated flooding in the areas of 17th and Folsom Streets, 15th and Wawona Streets, and Cayuga Avenue at Glen Park as the city recently informed residents and business owners in these areas that it can't do anything to prevent the sewer system from backing as a result of heavy rains.

All previous El Niño coverage on SFist.

Crazy weather we're having, eh? We don't know about you, but we didn't leave the house today. We read there was a Double Rainbow earlier, and we experienced the thunder and lightning for ourselves. It also hailed.

Did you go outside today?

[Via SF Citizen
video: Trevor Pressman]

"Hail! San Francisco! What??" by jerhodes.

To watch footage of yesterday's terrifying hailstorm, go here.

Speaking of slim, if you'd like to watch a bunch of overweight Americans work out and moan about their diets instead, there's always "The Biggest Loser" at 8 p.m. on NBC. (It had its season premiere last Tuesday.) We will attest that this is one of the best shows to watch while working out. Nothing will give you the motivation to stay on that elliptical an extra ten minutes than the sight of a 350-pound guy dragging a giant tire across the desert. Nothing!

Someone else viewed as unbeatable has a hail-Mary opponent from the progressive left -- and we're not just talking about Gavin Newsom and Chris Daly! That's right -- the stridently anti-war soldier's mom Cindy Sheehan has declared her candidacy against San Francisco's House representative, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Sheehan says she's running because Pelosi didn't move to impeach Bush by July 23. She's running as an independent and, along with the anti-war thing, is also running on a platform for universal health care.

No word if Sheehan's moved to San Francisco yet like she said she was going to (she currently lives outside Sacto) -- but hey, she could always rent Ed Jew's house. (Update: Ha! The Chron's conservative columnist Debra Saunders made this exact same joke! Liberals, moderates, conservatives, progressives: we all agree that Ed Jew is comedy gold.)

Jazz 115 Warriors 101- Oh Noes. In what had to be considered a must-win game, the Dubs once again played a nip-and-tuck basketball game against the Jazz only to disappear in the final minutes. Was it another choke? Or was it what Barkley and a few others have been saying, that all that running and gunning wears down the team's legs? Frankly, it was amazing the Warriors were even in this game. The Jazz managed to keep the lid on the particular brand of Warriors craziness at least semi-closed and the Warriors got below average games from J-Rich (7 points) and the Beard (just 15 points and 7 assists). Next game is in Salt Lake City and this is not looking good. Not looking good at all.

A's 10 Indians 7- Let us all hail Jack Cust who came out of nowhere and has now hit six homers in seven games, including yesterday's ninth inning walk off homerun as the A's once again battled from nowhere to win the game. Who is Jack Cust? Well, Beane picked him up for, well, beans from the Padres on May 3rd (that gnashing sound is SFist Chris cursing his home team team for trading the guy) and he's 28 and has played for four organizations, including the A's way back in 2005. Anyways, back to the game-- the A's were down by two with two outs-- their favorite position-- when Chavez singled and Milton Bradley homered. Tie game. Then Dan Johnson singled, Bobby Crosby singled, and up came Cust. You know the rest.

Giants 15 Rockies 2- this being the 20th game of a twenty game swing without a break (all, it seems, played against the Rockies) and following a lifeless performance by the team on Saturday, Bochy decided to sit most of his regulars and start the kids. First thought: poor luckless Matt Cain, the starting pitcher. Second thought: considering the Giants track record in developing hitters in their farm system, a perfect game thrown against them wouldn't be that surprising. So what happened? Twenty-two hits, fifteen runs and Fred Lewis going for the cycle. Now how about that?