California faces one of the worst winter storms in recent history

Powerful winter storm hits California threat of floods, blizzards and avalanches on Saturdaywhile adding freezing temperatures.

According to National Weather Serviceovernight lows could drop below freezing in some areas, while in the center San Francisco Record freezing temperatures could be recorded Saturday morning. Projected temperatures of 38 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) would see the city at its coldest since 2009, the weather service said.

Flash flood warnings were issued Friday until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. Saturday in the counties of Los Angeles and Ventura, a region of approximately 6 million inhabitants. The Weather Service said flash flooding was occurring Friday evening in Ventura County, where up to 18 inches of rain had fallen and up to 25.4 centimeters was possible before the storm turned rainy Saturday afternoon. .

in the county of Angels, forecasters said life-threatening flash flooding was possible near creeks, creeks, urban areas, highways and areas scorched by wildfires. The threat zone included downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and many suburbs.

“Shallow landslides and mudslides are expected,” the weather service said.

Despite the heavy showers, no serious problems were immediately reported.

Rain falling at a rate of up to an inch per hour raised fears of flooding or landslides. Evacuation warnings have been issued in some burned areas and for a 1.6km stretch of Oceano, located on the central coast near a levee that burst during storms last month. Residents were told to prepare to flee at short notice.

Meanwhile, people further east were struggling to cope with the aftermath of the storms earlier this week.

More than half a million people in Michigan Power was still out late Friday night, days after one of the worst ice storms in decades caused widespread outages by downing some 3,000 icy power lines.

Promises to restore power by Sunday, when low temperatures are expected to rise above zero degrees (-18 Celsius) again, came as no consolation.

“It’s been four days without power in this weather,” said Apurva Gokhale, of Walled Lake, Michigan. “It’s unthinkable.”

Back in California, the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center predicts heavy snowfall over the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountains through the weekend.

California wine country was not spared the rare mix of wind and snow. Mark Neal told KPIX-TV he woke up Friday morning to see a foot (30.4 centimeters) of snow — more than he’d seen in over 40 years — and dozens of his oaks broke in two.

“It’s more or less a battlefield if you look. Some are over 200 years old,” he says. Fortunately, the vines were at rest.

The low pressure system pushing the Pacific Ocean atmospheric river through central and southern California on Friday was driving inland and is expected to bring widespread rain and snow to southern Nevada on Saturday after -noon, then in northwestern Arizona Saturday evening and Sunday morning, the National Weather Service office in Las Vegas said.

An avalanche watch has been issued for the Sierra Nevada region around Lake Tahoe, which straddles the California-Nevada border. Nearly 24 inches of snow had fallen on Friday and another 5 feet were expected when another storm moved in with high winds and heavy downpours on Sunday, according to the weather service.

In Arizonathe heaviest snow was expected late Saturday through noon Sunday, with up to a foot of new snow possible in Flagstaff, forecasters said.

Snow over the weekend was also forecast for parts of the upper Midwest to the northeast, with pockets of freezing rain in parts of central Appalachia. The storm was expected to reach the central high plains Sunday evening.

However, cold weather hitting the north and west has bypassed the southern states, causing large temperature differences. The maximum temperature in the United States on Friday was 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) in Falcon Lake, Texas, while the minimum temperature was 1.7 degrees Celsius (-35 degrees Fahrenheit) near Huntley, Montana .

Winter squalls caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights at airports across the country and the closure of miles of highways major in several states.

In California, some motorists got stuck on snowy and icy State Route 17 overnighta major highway in the mountains above San Francisco Bay, before it reopens Friday morning.

There highway 5, the main north-south highway on the West Coast, was closed south of the Oregon border as snow fell on the Sacramento Valley floor. The Grapevine, a high mountain pass north of Los Angeles, was closed for more than 12 hours. After reopening on Friday evening, traffic slipped under police escort and there was the possibility of further closures as forecasters predicted high winds that would bring blizzard conditions to mountain ranges and ports.

Much of a long stretch of Interstate 80 was closed for most of Friday atop the Sierra Nevada mountain range between Sacramento, Calif., and Reno, Nevada.

Harsh weather conditions have forced Los Angeles County to keep its emergency shelters open through March as wind chills are expected to drop below freezing temperatures over the weekend in the San Fernando and San Gabriel. The county’s large homeless population was particularly at risk.

At least three people have died in storms from coast to coast. A Michigan firefighter died Wednesday after coming into contact with a downed power line, while in Rochester, Minnesota, a pedestrian was killed after being hit by a municipal snowplow. Authorities in Portland, Oregon have reported the death of one person from hyperthermia.

A lot of Portland it was closed and icy roads were not expected to thaw until Saturday, after the city’s second-highest snowfall on record this week: nearly 11 inches.

Tim Varner sat huddled in blankets outside a Portland store to protect himself from the wind, ice and snow. Local authorities have opened six overnight shelters, but the 57-year-old, homeless for two decades, said it was too difficult for him to push a shopping cart with his belongings to get to one of them. them.

“It’s impossible,” he said. “The snow accumulates on the wheels of the car and then you find slippery areas and you cannot drive. So you’re stuck.”

With information from AP

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