There are storms in the forecast that could cause flooding in California
Atmospheric River Tornadoes in the Southern Plains, West Coast, and South Central Valleys: Storm Prediction Center Observations
The atmospheric river – a long, narrow region in the atmosphere that can transport moisture thousands of miles – is the reason flood watches were issued for over 7 million people across much of the West Coast, including Seattle and San Francisco.
Blizzard conditions will “ramp up” overnight in the upper Midwest, and central Plains as residents brace for “a long drawn out period of snowfall,” according to Brandon Wills, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
According to the Bay Area NWS office the storm has consistently shown “impressive numbers” and will likely start to hit California late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
There will be gusts of up to 40 mph in the valleys, 50 mph in coastal areas, and even higher gusts in exposed coastal headlands, mountaintops, and ridges.
There have been a lot of inches in Battle Lake, Wyoming and Dupuyer, Montana, as well as in Park City, Utah.
The prediction center said that there were impacts to the infrastructure, including flooding, mudslides, power outage and snow load.
“While tornadoes in December are relatively uncommon when compared to the springtime, they are often more likely across portions of the Southeast and Lower Mississippi Valley, where there is often a secondary peak in the fall and winter,” Matthew Elliott, a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center, told CNN.
Tuesday also brings a risk of flash flooding due to excessive rainfall “from far east Texas into the lower Mississippi Valley,” warns the Weather Prediction Center. Up to 4 inches of rain could fall.
As the event approaches and smaller scale trends become more apparent, the details of areas most at risk from tornadoes will become clearer.
Avalanche Warning for the Sierra Nevada Backcountry and the Effects of a High-Intensity Flux on Power Outages and Trees
An avalanche warning was issued for the Sierra Nevada backcountry around Lake Tahoe, which straddles the California-Nevada border. Nearly 2 feet (61 cm) of new snow had fallen by Friday and up to another 5 feet (1.5 meters) was expected when another storm moves in with the potential for gale-force winds and high-intensity flurries Sunday, the weather service said.
There was no visibility between California to Nevada, so the interstate was closed, transportation officials said. There were chains on most of the rest of I-80 in the mountains.
The U.S. Forest Service issued an avalanche warning for the backcountry in the mountains west of Lake Tahoe where it said “several feet of new snow and strong winds will result in dangerous avalanche conditions.”
During the late night hours, a flash flood warning remained for around 1 million people in Los Angeles, Glendale and Santa Clarita through Saturday morning.
An online map shows that more than 153,000 customers had their power cut over the weekend. The utility said its crews are responding to the widespread power failures caused by the winter storm.
San Francisco Bay Area officials reported power outages and fallen trees, some of which damaged cars and homes. In Monte Rio, a small town along the Russian River, firefighters responded to several reports of trees crashing into homes, in strong wind gusts.
There were no injuries after the Monte Rio Fire Department Chief told KRON-TV that four different down trees had damaged houses.
“This is our first big storm, we’ve had several years of drought and all these trees were dry. Now they’re filling up with water and starting to topple over,” Baxman told the television station.
The Northern California Snowfalls and Snowstorms Over the Last Three-Year Low-Surface Counts have Arrived
Snowfall totals were 5 feet to Snow Valley, 57 inches to Bear Mountain Snow Summit, 50 to 55 Inches to WrightwoodAcorn Canyon, and 45 inches to Green Valley Lake.
The storm also has brought heavy snow to parts of California that rarely see it. It could get 4.5 feet of snow by Saturday on Mount Baldy, located east of Los Angeles.
“The snowpack is about 225% of normal, so it’s more than twice what we’d be expecting this time in December,” said Mark Deutschendorf, forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Reno.
There is a lot of Christmas cheer out here. “It didn’t come with a lot of wind, and it stuck to everything. It’s like a picture postcard.”
“If we want to completely get rid of this drought, we need basically another year’s worth of precipitation [at the lab] – we need 60 feet of snow total and 30 extra feet of snow compared to what we would get on average,” Schwartz told CNN, noting that their average snowfall is at 30 feet and that they would need to keep up the momentum all winter long, which is very unlikely.
The ski resort shared photos of thick snow over the weekend on its website, calling it Buried.
Kihara told CNN on Friday that they had never seen so much snow up here. “We woke up to it. It started yesterday but picked up a lot overnight. All the roads are closed due to the falling trees. Power is out and has been mostly gone since Tuesday.”
Travel will be almost impossible in the area over the next two days, according to the National Weather Service.
There were road closures on Wednesday in South Dakota, Wyoming, Arizona, North Dakota and Minnesota.
And an ice storm warning stretched Thursday morning from central Iowa to the Wisconsin-Illinois line and through southern Michigan – with freezing rain threatening ice accumulations that could make morning travel “nearly impossible” in places, the service said.
The storms that have hit Anchorage over the last week are known as historic and bring between 30 and 45% of the snow to our city, according to a statement from the Anchorage mayor’s office.
California was welcomed by the rain. The state has been in the midst of a three year dry spell but more precipitation is needed to make a difference.
New York and Boston can expect to get at least one to two inches of rain over the weekend before the storm system moves away from the region Sunday.
In response to the massive storm system, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned residents of the hazardous road conditions the storm is threatening to bring as millions across in the Northeast are under winter weather alerts Friday.
“We urge everyone in the impacted regions to avoid unnecessary travel tonight and tomorrow,” Hochul said in a Thursday statement. You should stay off the roads and work from home if you can.
In neighboring Pennsylvania, state transportation officials implored drivers to avoid unnecessary travel due to the low visibility caused by wind and heavy snow.
A strong storm system bringing rain and mountain snow left over 115,000 customers without power as the region braces for more wet, blustery weather.
The storm inflicted a slew of tornadoes in the South and blizzard conditions in the Upper Midwest, leaving about 100,000 homes and businesses in the dark across Minnesota, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Virginia as well as Pennsylvania of early Friday, according to Poweroutage.us.
Plus, dozens of tornadoes were reported across Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma since Tuesday. The deadly storms claimed the lives of three people in Louisiana.
And in parts of the Mid-Atlantic, the storm brought a quarter inch of ice was reported Thursday morning to the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia and Maryland, and about a tenth of an inch had built up in parts of Virginia.
Powerful winds whirled by blizzard conditions knocked down power lines in the Upper Midwest as temperatures in some areas plummeted to near or below freezing, leaving thousands without proper heating.
Natural Disaster Slashed by a Snowstorm in the Southern Subtropical State of California, a State of Conservation Laws, and an Attorney General’s Report
Meanwhile in Louisiana, Yoshiko A. Smith, 30, and her 8-year-old son, Nikolus Little, were killed Tuesday when a tornado struck Caddo Parish and destroyed their home, local officials said.
The town of Farmerville, in northern Louisiana, was hit by another tornado with an estimated wind speed of 140 mph. At least 20 people were injured, and the tornado demolished parts of an apartment complex and a mobile home park, Farmerville Police Detective Cade Nolan said.
There are a lot of storms this winter in California, bringing a lot of rain and snow.
Andrew Schwartz, the lead scientist and station manager of University of California, Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, says they are going to need more snow falling at the lab, which is located at Donner Pass east of Sacramento. It’s where he and other researchers measure snowpack totals and how much water equivalent would be available for the state’s residents.
Through the winter and the spring melt season, high elevation snowpack acts as a natural source of water that is able to ease the effects of dry weather. Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada accounts for 30% of California’s fresh water supply in an average year, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
With the multiyear megadrought, the snowpack in the Sierras had been at alarmingly low levels, while reservoirs, which are replenished by spring snow melt, are still below the historical average.
The next storms come after a powerful storm which wreaked havoc in California, flooding roads, downing trees and knocking out power to most of the state. Earlier, a New Year’s weekend storm system also produced flooding.
“It was definitely a good-news storm on balance, since despite the short-term disruption, it dropped quite a bit of water in places that really need it due to long-term drought and climate change-driven aridification,” Swain told CNN. “And, importantly, it dropped that water as snow, which is accumulating over weeks and months as snowpack, rather than warm rains that immediately turn into runoff.”
The highest form of the state’s natural disaster was slashed nearly in half this week, covering only a fraction of the state. To put that into perspective, that figure was more than 28% a year ago. According to the latest update, exceptional drought continues to persist in the southern parts of the Central Valley, particularly in Kern, Kings, Fresno and Tulare counties.
“It’s like a football game – we’ve scored a touchdown in the first quarter, but there’s three quarters left before we can really determine what the game outcome is going to be,” Schwartz said. “So if we get to March or April, and we’re sitting at above-average precipitation, then we can start to relax. We can start to celebrate a little bit.”
In addition, Swain says there has been a tilt in the seasonal outlook toward drier-than-average conditions across much of California and the lower Colorado River Basin, which will see additional unprecedented water cuts in effect in the new year, for January through spring.
The Colorado River systems’ rapidly escalating water crisis will not bode well for long-term relief if there is not enough precipitation in the coming months.
If anything, Schwartz said, this is the time “we need to be conserving our water more and maybe even bumping conservation efforts because this isn’t a guarantee of a full deep winter.”
The latest bulletin from the National Weather Service (NWS) names the cause as a “strong arctic high pressure system,” which swept down from Canada on Tuesday and appears poised to march towards the Southeast on Wednesday and Thursday, leaving a wake of life-threatening weather systems across 17 states.
The Cascade Mountains could see as much as three feet of snow in the highest elevations through Tuesday, while winds in the Pacific Northwest have the potential to gust up to 60 mph. Large, breaking waves will cause beach erosion when the seas are as high as 20 feet.
The winds will be as fast as 60 mph when the incoming cold front crosses the northern Rockies, Great Basin and Northern Plains regions.
By Friday, temperatures could hit the season’s lowest in what is only the first week of winter. It could get as low as 20 F on Christmas Eve in northern Florida.
Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were without power Tuesday morning after a blizzard due to polar front winds, flooding and storm-induced flooding rains
The approaching polar front had caused air travel delays and cancelations at airports across the U.S., but as of Tuesday morning, the situation was not as bad.
On the heels of a powerful storm, roads were flooded, trees were fallen and power supplies were knocked out. There were more than 400,000 people without power on Sunday. US. And a New Year’s weekend storm also produced flooding rains across the state, which is already off to a very wet start to the year.
The NWS warns that braving the cold can expose people to a risk of frostbite. Hypothetical temperatures could lead to skin damage in 10 minutes in parts of the U.S. this week.
Those venturing outside should dress in layers, cover their skins and wear dry clothes as soon as possible. But, experts say, the best prevention by far is simply to stay indoors.
As temperatures are expected to plummet in Northern California, as well as across the state, tens of thousands of homes and businesses will remain without power for at least a day.
More than 60 million people were under winter weather warnings in the West, the Great Lakes region and New York and New England on Thursday. That’s part of storms that already have left nearly one million homes and businesses without power, mainly in Michigan – struck partly by freezing rain and ice that’s damaged utility lines and trees – and other parts of the Midwest, according to tracker PowerOutage.us.
“While these winds won’t be on the order of the previous/stronger system it really won’t take much to bring trees down given saturated conditions and weakened trees from the last event,” the weather service in San Francisco posted Friday.
“The consecutive dry summers that we’ve had, especially the heat events like the heat dome, that really damages trees and it takes up so much of their energy to fuel their immune systems to fight off pathogens,” Bourgeois said.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office: A Soggy New Year with Possible More than 200 Million Days of Rain on December 26, 1996, Record-breaking rainfall
Portland recorded 2.12 inches of rain, breaking the old record of 1.08 inches set on December 26, 1996. Monday was the third-rainiest December day on record in Portland.
The weather service had warned Friday of possible overnight flash floods, landslides and mudslides in Los Angeles County near creeks, streams, urban areas, highways and areas that were burned by wildfires. The threat zone encompassed downtown L.A. and many other areas.
“Say goodbye to the warmth,” the National Weather Service in Los Angeles tweeted Monday. It’s going to be a big drop in temperatures between today and Tuesday. It will cool down to 15-20 degrees thanks to the storm system.
That means New Year’s Eve celebrations Saturday will likely be dampened in New York City and Washington, DC. Los Angeles, too, is expected to ring in a soggy new year.
It will be a good idea to keep an eye on the weather on Tuesday, as the risk of widespread flooding of rivers, creeks, streams and roadway and urban flooding is likely to be at its highest during the next week.
There will be a chance of rain in New York City through Saturday and the highest rain chances are expected on Sunday. The temperatures will be in the 50s through most of the day.
“The slight risk area mostly highlights places that are already high in soil moisture, burn scars and urban areas,” the Weather Prediction Center said.
The San Francisco Bay Area and the Mendocino County Reopened by a 9 Hour Colorado Snowstorm and Flood Warnings on the Eastbound Section of Interstate-70
An eastbound stretch of Interstate-70 in Colorado reopened Thursday after a nine-hour closure left drivers stranded amid bouts of heavy mountain snow, widespread rain and gusty winds.
State police said that a girl is one of the five people who died in Oregon after trees fell on passing vehicles.
There are a number of roads closed in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as in Mendocino County and the National Forest, where crews were able to clear the debris by Friday night.
The earthquake that struck on December 20th caused flooding in the county according to the National Weather Service. The bridge that was temporarily closed due to earthquake damage may be closed again when the Eel River gets too high, officials said.
The weather service predicts a storm may drop over an inch of rain in the area before moving towards the south. One ski resort was flooded and closed chair chairlifts, and posted a photo on the internet showing one lift tower with empty chairs near the water.
Many unhoused people live on the American River and are prone to flooding, so the fire officials planned to warn them using a helicopter and boat.
The weather service in Reno said that strong winds could cause tree damage and lead to power outages while high waves may capsize small vessels.
There were flood watches and warnings on the eastern Sierra’s front, where moderate to heavy flooding was expected along some rivers and streams.
At Susanville, California about 85 miles (137 kilometers) north of Reno, the Susan River was forecast to rise from about 5 feet (1.5 meters) Friday to a foot (30 centimeters) above the flood stage of 12 feet (3.6 meters) by Saturday morning, causing moderate flooding that could affect some homes, roads and bridges, the National Weather Service said.
Sacramento Roads were Flooded by Snow and the City of San Francisco on New Year’s Eve: State Route 50 and Highway 50 Reopened During the Second Wet Weather Day
“Too many road closures to count at this point” the weather agency in Sacramento said in a twit. The county warned residents in the unincorporated community that the flooded roads could make it hard to leave.
On New Year’s Eve, San Francisco had the second-wettest day on record with over five inches of rain. The streets of San Francisco were covered in mud-colored water while a staircase in Oakland turned into a waterfall due to heavy rains.
“Let’s slow down and work together so that we can keep I-80 open as the roads are extremely slick,” the California Highway Patrol said. Several other highways, including State Route 50, also reopened.
The Sacramento agency released a map of 24-hour precipitation through Saturday morning, showing a wide range of totals in the region, from less than an inch (2.54 centimeters) in some areas to more than 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) in the Sierra foothills.
A car that was stuck in more than one foot of water was not the only picture posted by the police department.
California was drying out and digging out on New Year’s Day after a storm that brought rain and snow snarled traffic and closed major highways.
Dozens of drivers were rescued on New Year’s Eve along Interstate 80 near Lake Tahoe after cars spun out in the snow, the California Department of Transportation said. The mountain route from the San Francisco Bay area to the mountains is open again to passenger vehicles with chains.
Emergency crews saved people from vehicles that were stuck in flood water. The person who died in a vehicle submerged in water near Highway 99 may have been related to the weekend storm, according to Capital Public Radio.
Sacramento Rains, Mud Slides and Flood Warnings for the First 24 Hours of the Sacramento Reelm Storm on New Year’s Eve
On New Year’s Day there was no rain in the area, which caused spectators to start preparing for Monday’s Rose Parade.
It was the first of several storms expected to roll across the state in the span of a week. Saturday’s system was warmer and wetter, while storms this week will be colder, said Hannah Chandler-Cooley, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
Forecasters in Northern California have a sobering new-year message for people who are reeling from floods and mudslides: the situation could get worse before it gets better.
The office says that parts of the Russian River are at particular risk for flooding. The NWS says that the storm could cause damage to areas where the soil is already saturated with rain.
On Sunday, Sacramento’s Mary Spencer-Gode and other residents gaped at the damage on their street, where the storm toppled a massive elm tree on New Year’s Eve.
“The wind was just going crazy,” she told Capital Public Radio. “We turned our TV off so we could hear it, and I was sitting in the kitchen, I heard a big ‘woosh’ and kind of the house moved.”
Then came more flood worries: Sacramento County authorities on Sunday escalated an evacuation warning for the community of Point Pleasant to an evacuation order, saying flooding was imminent and would “become incredibly dangerous after sunset.”
Flooding, mudslides and sinkholes during a week-long Southern California storm that will end with a major system at z=2.2
“It’s just a narrow area of high moisture that gets transported away from the tropics towards the higher latitudes,” often before a cold front arrives, as NWS senior forecaster Bob Oravec recently told NPR.
For states along the West Coast, atmospheric rivers are “actually responsible for a good majority of the rainfall during the colder season, which is the season when they get most of their rain,” Oravec said.
Even after this major system Monday and Tuesday moves out, the possibility of yet another impactful system is already on the horizon. At the end of this week a new system will impact Northern California and there is still not much information at this point.
The National Weather Service said the incoming storm should surpass the Saturday night storm by at least an inch and possibly more in the upslope areas.
Along with flooding, the risk of mudslides is especially high in sites of recent wildfires, where there’s no longer enough ground cover to absorb and retain moisture.
Excessive rain proved deadly Wednesday when a 19-year-old woman died after crashing her car into a utility pole on a partially flooded road in Northern California, the Fairfield Police Department said. The driver hit “a patch of standing water and hydroplaned, losing control of the vehicle, before colliding into a utility pole,” police explained.
A young child is dead after a tree fell at a home in Sonoma County in Northern California.
Mary Ellen Carol, the executive director of San Francisco’s emergency management department, said that flooding, mudslides and sinkholes were seen as of Wednesday evening.
• Also Saturday: An additional 1 to 2 feet of snow threaten to make travel dangerous in areas above 5,000 feet in mountains of Northern and central California, the Weather Prediction Center said.
Even a 40 mph wind can cause damage to buildings when the ground is saturated from a record amount of rain earlier this week.
“Additional rain on already saturated soils will contribute to additional flooding concerns across much of the state,” Solum told CNN. “There will continue to be an increased risk of rock slides and mud slides across much of the state as well.”
The weekend brought renewed flood concerns for the local streams and rivers. The Colgan Creek, Berryessa Creek, Mark West Creek, Green Valley Creek, and the Cosumnes River all have gauges that are currently above flood stage or expected to be in the next few days.
The Seasonal Patterns of El Nio and La Nia for the Pacific Northwest, according to a CPM Climate Prediction Center
El Niño and La Niña forecast patterns put out by the Climate Prediction Center give guidelines on what the overall forecast can be during a seasonal time period.
During La Nia, the Pacific Northwest is usually wetter than usual and Southern California is usually cooler than normal. This might be due to the jet stream being pushed farther north. It is not possible to tell.
“Atmospheric rivers typically form during the winter months and can occur during El Niños or La Niñas,” Arcodia said, noting their strength, frequency, and landfall location can be influenced by the larger patterns in the Pacific.
The entire season is not meant to be used on a day-to-day forecast scale, points out Michael Tippett, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University. This is why the patterns are so important to research.
“There is an element of randomness that is not explained by the patterns,” Tippett told CNN. It might help us understand why one year is different from the other.
State climatologist Michael Anderson talked to a news conference late Saturday, saying that officials were watching three other systems in the Pacific and keeping a close eye on Monday’s storm.
The Metropolitan Area Flood Hazard Warning System (MAPS) for San Francisco, Sacramento, Monterey, Fresno and Oxnard, California, with the National Weather Service
The city’s communications infrastructure, cellular and internet, is underground so “as we get more inundation from the rain, we’re seeing more failure around those, what we call lifeline systems” for power and communication, said Carroll.
This has led the prediction center to issue a Level 3 out of 4 risk for excessive rainfall for over 15 million people in the state on Monday including those in San Francisco, Sacramento, Monterey, Fresno, and Oxnard. If the forecast guidance increases rainfall totals, a Level 4 out of 4 high risk notice is necessary on Monday, according to the prediction center.
As the storm pushes farther inland, “Localized areas of 5+ feet (of snow) possible along the Sierra crest west of Lake Tahoe. Waves can go as high as 4 feet on Lake Tahoe according to the weather service.
“Overall, there is high confidence (60-80%) that this wetter-than-normal pattern will continue through the next couple of weeks,” the weather service in San Francisco said. It is not known how much rain above normal will fall, but continued saturated soils could pose a hazard into the third week of January.
Editor’s Note: A version of this article originally appeared in the weekly weather newsletter, the CNN Weather Brief, which is released every Monday. You can sign up here to receive them every week and during significant storms.
According to The National Weather Service office in Hanford, California, the amount of snow will result in the passes needing to be closed for a period of time which will impact traffic getting to and from Los Angeles.
There are warnings for southern Wyoming, where nearly two feet of snow and winds gusting more than 70 mph will cause blinding conditions. The wind chill is 25 degrees below zero according to the weather service.
The big cities will experience icy weather on Thursday. It’s difficult to pin down exactly where ice will occur in the Ohio Valley. If you live in these areas, keep an eye on the forecast for the freezing rain and sleet that could cause power outages.
Record-Horizon Temperatures in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Regions of Florida through a Mixing Event on Wednesday
Dozens of record daily highs were reached or tied Wednesday, including 98 degrees in McAllen, Texas, and 87 degrees in Naples, Florida. Atlanta, Georgia had a record high of 81 degrees in February, making it the city’s typical high in May.
On Wednesday and Thursday, temperatures will run 30 to 40 degrees below normal for the northern Rockies and northern Plains, while temperatures run 20 to 30 degrees above normal for the Southeast and mid-Atlantic.
If you are buried under three feet of snow or basking in the sunshine and record warmth this week, there is a chance that you will be in all corners of the country.
It will feel like summer across the Southeast and Midwest this week, with a high above 70 degrees for nearly 150 million Americans. The difference between the Dakotas and central Florida will be stark, as the highs in the Dakotas will plunge below zero and the highs in the Florida will spike into the 90s.
As part of the same system, storms are expected in the Midwest and Plains late Tuesday night into Wednesday. The Upper Midwest could also see heavy rainfall and severe storms beginning Wednesday.
High temperatures across the region will climb well into the 70s and 80s beginning Tuesday before peaking on Thursday, and cities across the Florida peninsula could reach into the 90s. These temperatures are usually high in May or early June and are running 20 to 35 degrees above normal.
Gov. Tim Walz directed the state’s National Guard, the transportation department and the state patrol to be prepared to respond storm impacts, he said on Twitter.
Snow, ice and blizzard warnings from the Minneapolis International Airport to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and the Natrona County School District in Casper
The cancellation rate increased on Wednesday morning. As of 8 a.m. ET, more than 1,600 flights had been canceled, with Minneapolis International Airport scrapping roughly half of its arrivals.
The cancellations come as more than five million people are under ice storm warnings across northeastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northwestern Illinois and southern Michigan. And more than two million people are under blizzard warnings across parts of Wyoming, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota: In addition to the up to 4 inches of snow the state has already seen, snowfall up to 16 inches and winds of 45 mph are also expected.
The offices of the state government Executive Branch in more than half of the state’s 66 counties will be closing on Wednesday with plans for employees to work remotely. Additionally, Interstates 29 and 90 partially closed Tuesday night to prepare for the expected snow.
Eastern Wyoming College has closed its main campus. The Natrona County school district in Casper will conduct a virtual learning day Wednesday due to hazardous weather and road conditions throughout the area, the district said.
Residents of Northern states in the U.S. are starting to hunker down as heavy snow and high winds are predicted to create whiteout conditions on Wednesday.
The Minnesota Snow Plows are Getting Ready for a Next-Generation Snowfall in a Scenario for Mid-Atlantic and Central New England
The governor of Minnesota directed the state’s transportation department, National Guard and state patrol to be ready to respond to the closings of schools.
As temperatures in Southern California might not rise above 50 degrees, parts of the Southeast and mid-Atlantic are expected to see highs in the 70s and 80s on Wednesday.
But that warm front isn’t likely to stick around for much longer. The storm will bring the same type of weather to upstate New York and central New England by the weekend, causing temperatures to fall further south.
Alex Tardy of the National Weather Service said in a video that it is rare for us to talk about three feet of snow above 4,000 feet.
“This isn’t a matter of if it’ll rain or snow, but how much,” Tardy said, noting that the region is expected to see significant snowfall until Friday night, as well as a possible atmospheric river.
By Saturday, Mount Baldy could get up to 4.5 feet of snow. Ellingson is the General Manager of Mount Baldy Ski Lifts.
The snow plows are prepared to plow the roads, bike trails, and sidewalks of the city. Ensuring emergency vehicles can get where they need to go is their first priority.
On the Nature of the Emerging Snowstorm, Highway Patrol Efforts and Highway Safety Warnings in the Southern 48, California, and State of California
The emerging storm, she said, is “not anything unusual” – and the city anticipates it won’t be the same kind of “non-stop, all hands-on deck situation” they experienced earlier this year.
The first two weeks of January brought 17 feet of snow to the region, which caused the roads and ski lifts to be closed.
The February storm should be manageable, even if it gets between 15 and 21 inches of snow on Friday. Burke added this storm should bring the “perfect amount of snow to get out there and ski and ride.”
Crews in Wyoming were in search-and-rescue mode after more than 40 inches of snow fell in the southern parts of the state over the course of several days and motorists were trapped in heavy snow, the state highway patrol said on Twitter.
In Minnesota, swaths of which saw 3-7 inches with locally higher amounts as of early Thursday, more than 160 vehicle crashes were reported and dozens of cars spun off roads Wednesday, Minnesota State Patrol spokesperson Lt. Gordon Shank said in a series of tweets.
In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers declared a statewide energy emergency on Wednesday due to snow and freezing rain in the north and south.
Out west, in an extremely rare event, California’s Los Angeles and Ventura Counties will be under blizzard warnings from Friday morning through Saturday afternoon, the weather said. This will be the first storm warning issued by the weather service in Los Angeles in over twenty years.
The Northern Rockies to South Temperature Differences Due to the Dueling Weather Storm and Heat Wave: Michigan Weather Service Observations on Wednesday
The difference in temperature between the Northern Rockies and South were caused by the dueling winter storm and heat wave.
The Green Bay airport canceled the remaining flights on Wednesday and most of them on Thursday.
The offices of the governor in Maine will be closed on Thursday as the state braces for a big storm.
Atlanta was 81 degrees on Wednesday, an all-time record in February. Washington, D.C., reached 79 degrees, New Orleans reached 83 degrees and Nashville, Tenn., was 80 degrees on Wednesday.
The National Weather Service reported that warm temperatures were seen in Southern and Mid-Atlantic states. On Thursday, both Nashville, Tenn., and Richmond, Va., saw temperatures hit 85 and 83 degrees respectively.
On Friday, the National Weather Service warned boaters toseek safe harbor immediately near the coast of the state’s San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties because of the chance of severe storms that could cause sudden waterspouts and easily overturn boats. Small tornadoes can be seen on land in the two counties.
San Jose, Napa and other parts of the region have been issued a freeze warning. Unsheltered populations, crops and outdoor plumbing will all be at risk during the sub-freezing conditions.
It was risky for livestock and infrastructure in Michigan because of the freezing rain and ice. The snow covered Port Austin with 8 inches and Midland with 9.2 inches. The southern parts of the state had high amounts of ice, according to the weather service.
There is a chance of light snow in some parts of Michigan. Meanwhile, across the state, temperatures will be below freezing on Friday. The weather is expected to warm up by Sunday.
The Los Angeles Flash Flood Warning for Southern California During the Superstorm Microwave Mayonnaise and Winter Storms End at 6 a.m.
The weather service issued a flash flood warning for the Los Angeles area after roads turned into rivers because of the heavy rain.
Heavy rainfall is expected to continue through the weekend over areas at lower elevations as overnight flash flooding was ongoing north and west of Los Angeles, the Weather Prediction Center said early Saturday.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the Midwest are still being affected by the weather system that hit California and many other states earlier this week.
There were almost 400,000 customers without power in Michigan on Saturday. The two main utilities in the state, DTE and Consumers Energy, have said they hope to have the lights back on for most of their customers by Sunday night.
DTE, one of Michigan’s largest electric providers, is restoring power to stricken areas but cautioned it will not be able to return service to most customers before Sunday.
In New England, icy conditions likely contributed to a massive 15-vehicle pileup on the Massachusetts Turnpike Thursday night, according to a tweet by the Massachusetts State Police.
Los Angeles. The winter storm that swept down the West Coast with flooding and frigid temperatures on Saturday shifted to southern California where it dumped snow and swelled rivers.
forecasters predicted the storm wouldn’t be as bad later in the day, even though warnings continued in the mountains and flood advisories blanketed the region.
Flash flooding did hit nearby Ventura County early Saturday, where up to 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain fell, but by 6 a.m. Saturday, the weather service said the heavy rain in both counties had ended and that flooding was no longer a threat.
A Major Winter Storm Has Provoked Blizzard and Flood Warnings Across California: Allison Rinker’s 150-Year-Old House
Brian Wheeler, a spokesman for Consumers Energy, said half an inch (1.27 centimeters) of ice weighed down some power lines — equivalent to the weight of a baby grand piano.
In Kalamazoo, Michigan, Allison Rinker was using a borrowed generator to keep her 150-year-old house warm Saturday after two nights in the cold and dark.
She said the spirits were low on the second day. It was a complete flip in attitude as soon as the heat came back, and we had one or two lights running.
“The ice that was falling off the trees as it was melting was hitting our windshield so hard, I was afraid it was going to crack,” she said. “There’s just tree limbs everywhere, half of the trees just falling down. The destruction is insane.”
The National Weather Service office in Las Vegas said there was a chance of widespread rain and snow in southern Nevada by Saturday afternoon and in northwest Arizona by Sunday morning.
Yet the cold weather blasting the North and West avoided the southern states, leading to wild temperatures differences. The high temperature for the U.S. on Friday was 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Celsius) at Falcon Lake, Texas, while the low was minus-35 degrees Fahrenheit (1.7 Celsius) near Huntley, Montana.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/25/1159560284/a-major-winter-storm-has-prompted-blizzard-and-flood-warnings-across-california
Multiple deaths in Oregon, Oregon, and Los Padres National Forest resulting from the second-heaviest snowfall of the week of September 30
There have been at least three deaths in the storms. A Michigan firefighter died Wednesday after coming into contact with a downed power line, while in Rochester, Minnesota, a pedestrian died after being hit by a city-operated snowplow. Authorities in Portland, Oregon, said a person died of hypothermia.
The city’s second-heaviest snowfall on record this week resulted in a total of nearly 11 inches (30 centimeters) of snow shutting down Portland.
Tim Varner sat in a doorway of a Portland storefront with blankets covering him from the cold and wind. The 57-year-old, who has been homeless for two decades, said that it was too difficult to push a shopping cart with his stuff to get to a shelter.
He said it was impossible. “The snow gets built up on the wheels of your cart and then you find slippery spots and can’t get no traction. You’re stuck.
In addition, heavy rainfall brought several inches of rain to the area, including more than 4 inches in Holy Jim Canyon, Lower Silverado Canyon and Henshaw Dam; more than three inches in La Jolla Amago, Costa Mesa, Mount Woodson and Carlsbad Airport; and more than two inches to John Wayne Airport, Escondido, San Bernardino and Temecula, according to the service’s 5-day rainfall reports.
The storm made travel difficult in some areas. In Los Padres National Forest, State Route 33 was closed due to rock slides and erosion from this and previous storms, according to video from the California Department of Transportation.
