A powerful winter storm hits the west coast of the United States. On his way there is an area that is not used to such cold, wind and snow. Oregon already had to deal with a lot of winter annoyance earlier this week and now it’s California’s turn. It’s been over 3 decades since the National Weather Service issued a blizzard alert there.
Earlier this week, the storm was already causing a lot of inconvenience in Oregon. Nearly a foot of snow fell in the Portland area, marking the city’s second snowiest day on record. Motorists stopped on highways for hours. Some drivers even left their cars on the side of the road. Schools and universities are closed. Yesterday afternoon, the Oregon Department of Transportation closed several roads due to “hundreds of downed trees.”
About a million families were without electricity. A number of power lines were damaged due to rain, storms and fallen trees. This was reported by various American media. Michigan has been particularly hard hit, where about 717,000 customers remain without power, according to the poweroutage.us website. A firefighter was also killed by a downed power line.
The intensity of the winter storm surprised many meteorologists. There was a lot of uncertainty in the forecasts, in part because there was little chance of snow. With one exception, weather forecast models fail to capture widespread snowfall, according to the National Weather Service. In addition, the storm system left the area slower than expected.
Read more below the tweet.
The winter storm is currently over California and will be more intense there today and tomorrow. This can cause dangerous conditions, as blizzards are not usually associated with the south of this state. In the mountains, snowfall of 1.5 to 2 meters is expected, winds of up to 120 km / h and limited visibility. As of today, a Winter Storm Warning has been issued for extremely dangerous conditions. There’s even a blizzard warning for today and tomorrow. This is something one rarely hears over there, the previous one dates back to 1989.
There is also an avalanche hazard warning. This is why people are advising everyone to stay home. A few centimeters of snow can fall in the lower regions. According to meteorologists, this could be the most snow in 24 to 48 hours since 1989. However, one shouldn’t expect the Hollywood sign to suddenly be covered with a winter carpet.
Read more below the tweet.
NWS Los Angeles
@employee
So it’s not the first blizzard warning for the National Weather Service in Los Angeles. Although it took a lot of searching to find the former, since their data only goes back to 2006, they used to give warnings of high waves and floods there. The last blizzard warning was issued on February 4, 1989.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, a new storm is expected early next week.
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