LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Latest on California storms (all times local):
3:20 p.m.
Yosemite National Park is closing roads due to major storms in the area.
The park has closed Tioga Road, which tops 9,000 feet, because driving conditions deteriorated Friday.
Glacier Point Road, which rises to 8,000 is set to close at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Both roads usually close for the winter months.
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1:40 p.m.
Yosemite National Park says it will close two roads as major storms approach the area.
Officials plan to close Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road on Saturday afternoon until further notice.
Tioga Road typically closes each fall and remains closed throughout the winter, reopening when weather and road conditions permit in the spring.
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12:10 p.m.
The National Weather Service has issued an urban and small stream flood advisory for central San Joaquin County and Stanislaus County due to heavy rain in Central California.
The advisory will expire at midafternoon Friday.
In Southern California, meanwhile, the weather service canceled all flash flood watches for the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains as the threat of heavy rain has rapidly diminished.
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11:20 a.m.
California homeless service providers are moving to help homeless people stay dry and find shelter as a series of storms moves through the state over the next several days.
In Santa Rosa and the North San Francisco Bay, hundreds of homeless people remain on the streets and in encampments, cars and abandoned buildings.
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported (https://bit.ly/2ePpbol ) Friday that the Homeless Services Center run by Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa will be open overnight and likely through the weekend if more rain hits the region.
But the group’s permit won’t allow it to begin full winter operations until Tuesday in west Santa Rosa, where 50 seasonal beds will be added.
Meanwhile, the workers will set up canopies and collect blankets, tarps, ponchos and warm clothes to be given to people in need.
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8:30 a.m.
The California Highway Patrol says a big rig crashed on the eastbound side of Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge before sunrise, leaking fuel and closing several lanes of traffic.
The driver was taken to a hospital with unknown injuries.
Authorities say about 100 gallons of fuel spilled on the highway, and it could take several hours to clean up the mess.
It was not immediately known if the rain contributed to the crash.
The next storm is expected Saturday night into Sunday.
7:20 a.m.
The first in a series of Pacific storms has been bringing rain in varied amounts to many parts of California.
The National Weather Service said Friday the very slow-moving system brought plenty of rain overnight to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.
But parts of the Central Coast farther north have had lesser amounts, resulting in cancellation of a flash flood watch for the huge wildfire burn scar in the Big Sur region.
San Francisco Bay Area meteorologists report widespread precipitation with rainfall rates generally light.
The Los Angeles region is still awaiting significant rain after the system’s eastward progression stalled late Thursday, but flood watches are still posted for fire-scarred mountains.
In the interior, the National Weather Service reports locations in the southern Sierra Nevada north of Kings Canyon have had between half an inch and an inch of rain, while the west side of the San Joaquin Valley has collected nearly a half-inch.
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California is still substantially in a drought, but don’t call it parched.
A year ago almost the entire state was in severe, extreme or exceptional drought. But since then, enough rain has fallen that a chunk of northwestern California is now back to normal, and the worst levels of drought designation have retreated somewhat to the central and southern regions.
A storm moving into the state early Friday will be followed by more fronts during the weekend.
The National Weather Service said there would be potential for moderate to heavy rainfall and thunderstorms as the system tapped subtropical moisture and remnants of moisture from former Hurricane Seymour in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California.
Other storms are expected to follow during the weekend, with potential for snow in sections of the Sierra Nevada, which normally stores a huge amount of the state’s water supply in the form of a winter snowpack that eventually runs off into major reservoirs.
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