Thousands lose power in Sacramento with heavy wind gusts in the forecast, SMUD says

More than 15,000 SMUD customers in Sacramento lost power for about an hour Friday evening ahead of heavy rain and wind in the forecast for the capital region.

There were 15,516 residences unplugged from the electric grid as of about 5:30 p.m. Friday in the South Land Park and Greenhaven neighborhoods, according to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District website. That number dropped to about 8,600 by 6 p.m. and then to about 4,400 by 6:15 p.m. before the utility reported the outage as resolved around 6:30 p.m.

SMUD said online the reason behind the outage was unclear.

The National Weather Service station said gusts up to 45 mph could buffet the region from 10 p.m. Friday until noon Saturday.

A strong weather system will sweep across Northern California this week, with up to 30 inches of snow dropping at high elevations in the Sierra Nevada range and wind gusts reaching 120 mph at mountain peaks. The weather service cautioned drivers against near-whiteout conditions and major travel delays over the Lake Tahoe region starting from Friday night.

This story was originally published December 13, 2024 at 6:13 PM.