The Soda Springs/Michigan Winter Storm System is Moving Closer to the South with High Winds, Hail and Tornadoes
A large winter storm system that blanketed western US with heavy snow and is threatening the South with strong winds, hail and tornadoes is moving closer to the South.
In 48 hours, Soda Springs received over half a foot of snow in the northern part of the state.
Parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana are at risk of severe storms on Monday, with damaging winds, strong tornadoes and hail possible. Storms are expected to begin in the afternoon and will last through the overnight hours.
The threat will strengthen Tuesday when the system heads east and is likely to impact a large swath of the Lower Mississippi River Valley. Large parts of Louisiana and Mississippi could be affected by tornadoes, high wind gusts and damaging hail.
To the east, residents in Fargo, North Dakota, are expected to see snowfall over 6 inches and will be under a winter storm watch from late Monday night until late Wednesday night. Duluth, Minnesota, could also see 6 inches of snow and will be under a winter storm watch starting Tuesday morning.
Sierra locations above 5,000 feet received around 20-45 inches of snow Saturday through early Sunday morning – and another round of lighter snow is on the way.
Snow and Wind Overnight in Olympic Valley, Calif., during a December Snow Storm on July 1st, 2002, as reported by the National Weather Service
The roads are very slippery. The California Highway Patrol said that all of them should work together and slow down so they can keep I-80 open. State Route 50 was one of the highways that reopened.
The National Weather Service office in Reno is expecting the season to end in December with about two-thirds of the normal snow cover in the Sierra.
It looks like Christmas out here. It stuck to everything, even with a lot of wind. It’s like a picture postcard.”
While he noted the snow totals so far were impressive,Deutschendorf was cautiously optimistic about the state’s climate and how this precipitation would affect it.
“We’re Buried,” the Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort wrote on its website Sunday, sharing photos of thick snow covering the ski resort in Olympic Valley, California.
This is definitely a storm to remember. We’ve now received 7.5 feet of snow since December 1st. There was more than 35 inches of snow in the 24 hours that ended Sunday, the 6th largest snowfall total in the history of the resort.
The West is expecting rain or snow with the hardest hit states being California and Colorado. By mid-afternoon Tuesday, the rain, snow and wind have already knocked out power to about 126,000 customers in Oregon, 28,000 in Washington state and 22,000 in California, according to poweroutage.us.
The atmospheric river storm began to sweep across the northern part of the state Friday and was expected to bring more rain through Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 15 million people are under a wind alert in the West as the storm system pushes inland, according to the National Weather Service.
The Portland metro and the Willamette Valley can expect strong, possibly damaging, wind gusts as high as 60 mph, according to the NWS in Portland. The coast is expected to have gusts of 50 to 70 mph.
Colin Bourgeois, an arborist, tells CNN that trees in Portland could be knocked down by strong winds.
The heat domes that occur during the dry summers cause damage to trees by taking up so much of their energy to fight off pathogens.
A Record-breaking December Day in Portland, Oregon, and the Los Angeles Area: The First Waves of Low-Slope, Wind-Negative, and Soggy Weather
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.
There is a slight chance that excessive precipitation will occur along the Northern California coast, according to the Weather Prediction Center. It extends southward along the coast to the Los Angeles area on Saturday. The foothills of the Sierra Nevada are at risk of heavy rain on Friday and Saturday.
The foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains are the most prone to flash-flooding, as well as the coastal areas of southern Oregon and the Bay Area.
“Say goodbye to the warmth,” the National Weather Service in Los Angeles tweeted Monday. There is a big drop in temperatures between today and Tuesday. The approaching storm system will cause 15-20 degrees of cooling.
In the West, an initial round of lashing rain, wind and snow has moved inland and is set Wednesday to engulf inter-mountain areas. A brief lull on Wednesday may be temporary, but more rounds of rain and snow are expected to sweep across the country at the end of the week.
The first wave is affecting parts of southern California and the Four Corners region, which includes Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. The Four Corners area will be getting low elevation rain and high elevation snowfall by late Wednesday morning and will stay there until Thursday.
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.
A flood watch for more than 16 million is in effect including the entire Bay Area and Central Valley though Saturday night. Rain could ease Saturday evening before the calendar turns to 2023.
The rain chances will increase over the next two days in New York City, with the most precipitation expected between 7 and 1 a.m. on Sunday. Through most of the afternoon and evening, temperatures will be in the 50s.
“The slight risk area mostly highlights places that are already high in soil moisture, burn scars and urban areas,” the Weather Prediction Center said.
State roads and bridges closed after a huge storm on Dec. 20, 2015, as California prepares to welcome a new year: Snowfall, flood watches and warnings
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 in Oregon said five people were dead when trees fell on passing vehicles.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A powerful storm brought drenching rain or heavy snowfall to much of California on Saturday, snarling traffic and closing highways as the state prepared to usher in a new year.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, including the unincorporated community of Fremont and Sunol, as well as in Mendocino County near the unincorporated community of Piercy and in the Mendocino National Forest, there were already routes closed due to land slides.
The earthquake that hit on Dec. 20 also caused roads in the county to flood, according to the National Weather Service. A bridge that was temporarily closed last week due to earthquake damage may be closed again if the Eel River, which it crosses, gets too high, officials said.
The fire department planned to broadcast warning notices from a helicopter and boat, along with the American River where many unhoused people live, to warn of flooding.
“Strong winds could cause tree damage and lead to power outages and high waves on Lake Tahoe may capsize small vessels,” the weather service in Reno said.
Flood watches and warnings are still in effect for the Sierra and south of Reno, Nevada, where some rivers and streams are projected to get some flooding into the weekend.
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 County Supervisors issued a State of Emergency for a Very Wet Season in the Last Three Years, and the CA Highway Patrol has notified the county of evacuations
It was a welcome rain in California, but more of it is needed to make a difference. The past three years have been California’s driest on record.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the roadway closed in both directions in South San Francisco. In an evening update, CHP added there was no estimated time of reopening as “water is not receding due to non-stop rainfall & high tides preventing the water to displace.”
A large rainstorm that brought a lot of rain to the area on Friday and Saturday is nearing an all-time high.
According to the National Weather Service, there was a 9 hundredths of an inch difference between the daily record of 5.54 inches and the downtown San Francisco average of 5.45 inches.
Three communities near the city of Watsonville were also told to evacuate by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office due to creek flooding, while the rising San Lorenzo River waters prompted evacuations in the communities of Paradise Park and Felton.
The Santa Rita Creek area in Monterey County was placed under a warning because of fears that the creek could spill over its banks.
“Rising water has made roads impassable in the area,” Sacramento County officials said on Facebook, urging those who were already on the road to head to safety and those who were home to “stay at home.”
The county on Saturday issued a declaration of local state of emergency for winter storms because they have caused transportation impacts, flooding, and rising creek and river levels in the area.
Don’t use caution if you have to travel. There are a lot of reports of flooding and other weather impacts according to the city.
“Stormageddon”: The Sacramento Valley and Sierra Foothills under Poweroutage.US During the First Day of the Sacramento Flood Season
There were 103,000 homes, businesses and other power customers without power across California and Nevada as of Sunday night, down from a high of more than 300,000 outages on Saturday, according to Poweroutage.US.
At one point Saturday, officials ordered residents in Wilton – roughly 20 miles from Sacramento – to leave the area immediately, warning that rising water may spill over onto roadways and cut off access to leave the area. The water made roads useless, and residents were told to shelter in place.
The storm could bring close to an inch of rain to the area, according to the weather service. One ski resort south of Lake Tahoe closed chair lifts because of flooding and operational problems, and posted a photo on Twitter showing one lift tower and its empty chairs surrounded by water.
The map shows totals from less than an inch in some areas to over 5 inches in the Sierra foothills, as of Saturday morning.
The car was stuck in more than a foot of water and was photographed by the police department.
It’s not clear how much this storm will make a difference to the situation in California, which started the year with very little rain and ended with flooding roads and rivers.
Several rivers began to overflow, including the Mokelumne and Cosumnes rivers, according to the National Weather Service. The southern Sacramento Valley and Sierra foothills were placed under flood warnings.
California, which has seen its driest start to the year on record and ended with drenched roads, rivers and thick snow, is a bit relieved about the situation.
The Sacramento County area was particularly hard hit, with emergency crews spending the weekend rescuing multiple flood victims by boats and helicopter and responding to fallen trees and disabled vehicles in the flood waters, the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District said.
The Amador County Sheriff’s Office called it “Stormageddon” and shared a picture of cars up to their door handles in flooded areas.
Highway 50 and Echo Summit closed after flooding from the Cosumnes River, forcing Highway 99 to close south of Elk Grove, Sacramento County, according to the National Weather Service
Highway 50 was reopened just after midnight, hours after a section between Pollock Pines and Meyers was closed due to flooding from the American River, while another section was closed over Echo Summit for avalanche control work.
In Sacramento County and adjacent areas, residents were advised to avoid travel as wind gusts of up to 55 mph toppled trees and covered roads with debris, according to a tweet from the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
The weather service said that there would be snow over 7,000 feet and isolated storms of 5 feet or more above 9,000 feet.
Work will take place across the mountain since all lifts were coated in ice and the avalanche danger is extreme, the ski resort stated on their Facebook page.
At the Nevada State line and Colfax, the California Highway Patrol reported that there were dangerous and hazardous driving conditions and many vehicles were stuck on the I-80.
In Southern California, several people were rescued after floodwaters inundated cars in San Bernardino and Orange counties. No major injuries were reported.
Spectators staked out their spots for Monday’s annual floral spectacle because of the drying out of the region on New Year’s Day.
At least two people died in the storm, including one who was found dead inside a completely submerged vehicle Saturday in Sacramento County, and a 72-year-old man who died after being struck by a fallen tree at a Santa Cruz park, according to officials.
“It is expected that the flooding from the Cosumnes River and the Mokelumne River is moving southwest toward I-5 and could reach these areas in the middle of the night,” the agency tweeted.
Flooding from the Cosumnes River forced the closure of Highway 99 south of Elk Grove in Sacramento County, the California Department of Transportation tweeted. “SR 99 is one of the state’s heavily traveled, and commercially important, corridors,” its website adds.