Schools in Cloverdale Cancel Classes Due to Storm

Classes were canceled Friday for all schools in the Cloverdale Unified School District due to winter weather in the area, Sonoma County school officials said.

The district is the only one in the county confirmed to be closed as a result of a storm that has brought snow, ice and high winds to the region.

“Kids get a snow day, doesn’t get much better than that,” said Bob Powers of Sebastapol.

Powers took his grandson, Jack, to the park after his brother began texting him pictures of the storm. 

“He said ‘there is snow, we got a snowman, come and play' so we grabbed the dog so he and I decided we were going to come and play in the snow," said Sebastapol.

Overnight, the wine country town looked more like Truckee.

“It’s been years since it snowed here, like its always been icy,” said Hugo Orozco who lives in Cloverdale.   

The storm briefly knocked out his power and heat in the morning, but that didn’t damper his snow spirit.

“Usually have to pay to play in the snow, go down to Lake Tahoe or whatever, so it's kind of worth it to take the day off, and play in the snow a little bit,” said Orozco.

Not everywhere got blanketed in snow, but even patchier places attracted sledders. 

One neighbor shared a video of the fresh blanket of snow at a higher elevation. 

“I’ve had real snow, it was like sending holiday greetings from Cloverdale, it was great,” said Neena Hanchett of the Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce.

Hanchett said their phones have been ringing all day.

“When we were driving up here, I saw the cars passing by and they had a couple of inches of snow on them and I thought ;oh my goodness,'” said Jessica Dickerson of Santa Rosa.

Highway 128 had to be shut down for part of the day due to storm damage and drivers were being warned to watch out for slick streets. But for most, Friday was about the joy that comes with playing in the snow.

Any other Sonoma County school closures related to the storm will be listed by the county's Office of Education.