The second of three winter storms expected this week blew through San Diego County on Monday with high winds, considerable rainfall and snow, and some hail.
The weather system brought rain up to three-tenths of an inch per hour and snow as low as 2,500 feet in the mountains.
Strong winds knocked out power to some 1700 SDG&E customers across the county and disrupted plans for COVID-19 vaccinations at the county’s Petco Park vaccination super station.
Alex Tardy of the National Weather Service said the high winds on San Diego’s coast are a rare event.
“Those winds were gusting all night, 20, 30 miles per hour and in some of the windiest locations over 50 mph. This wasn't a Santa Ana wind, this was a wind coming off of the ocean,” Tardy said.
The Petco Park super station was empty Monday morning after the weather forced the county to close operations for the day. One of the tents at the location even blew over due to the strong gusts.
In a tweet on Monday afternoon San Diego County said, “Due to inclement weather, the Vaccination Super Station at Petco Park will be closed all day Monday, as well as Tuesday morning. It will be determined Tuesday morning if the closure needs to be extended.”
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People who tried to show up for appointments at the Petco site or attempted to rebook with other clinics the same day were turned away.
County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said the county will increase staff and operational hours at the Petco site through the rest of the week to make up for the lost time.
“The goal is to increase the throughput and increase the hours to try and catch those up as best we can,” Fletcher said.
The county further clarified the plan to reschedule vaccination times in a follow up tweet Monday afternoon: “People who had appointments for Monday should check MyChart, as they are being rescheduled for Thursday and they should return only at that newly scheduled time. Appointments made for the Petco site do not transfer to other County locations.”
While the Petco Park super station shut down for the day, all other county vaccination sites remained open, including Chula Vista’s new indoor, walk-in super station.
