Unusual Bay Area Weather Sparks Flight Delays, Alerts Firefighters

This week's unusual weather is a blessing for some and a curse for others.

At the San Francisco International Airport, airline passengers checked the flight board like sports fans checking the scoreboard. For thousands of travelers on Monday, the results they were hoping for were not there.

Tanima Dey is hoping for a change in her travel fortunes. Her trip to San Francisco was a disaster several days ago. And on Monday night the cloud cover made it a two-flight losing streak.

"I am going to Newark first," Dey said. "That's been delayed so I don't know if I'll make my connecting flight to Boston."

Carolyn Foley is starting a job at a hospital in Portland tomorrow -- she hopes.

"I booked the last flights to get home in time to start work at the hospital and I'm missing them right now," Foley said. "I've missed three flights."

SFO Duty Manager Nancie Parker said there's nothing anyone can do. More than 100 flights were cancelled on Monday.

"There are lots of low clouds and rain here all day long so that's causing the cancellations and delays," Parker said. "It will be this way we expect until 1 a.m."

And maybe the same story on Tuesday.

But firefighters see all that weather as a blessing.

In the short term it is a chance for firefighters to check out machinery and catch their breath, said Santa Clara County Cal Fire Battalion Chief Tim Main.

"Giving our people some days off to rest so that peak staffing, but we can rotate people out and they can prepare for what's coming this weekend."

And what's coming this weekend are blue skies and warming temperatures, not what firefighters like, but a welcome sight for travelers at SFO.

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