KVSP More than 118,000 customers without power as storm hits West Coast
Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on January 5, 2023
(NEW YORK) — A major storm is hitting the West Coast with flood, high wind and heavy snow alerts in effect for California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington state.
More than 118,000 customers are without power in California.
Although the heaviest of the rain has ended, unsettled weather continues across California and a flood watch remains in effect.
A winter storm warning is in place for the mountains outside of Los Angeles, where up to a foot of snow is possible.
In California, winds gusts up to 132 mph were reported in Alpine Meadows and up to 60 mph at San Francisco International Airport.
Heavy rain will continue Thursday in California and then most of the state will catch a break on Friday before more rain arrives over the weekend and into early next week.
Winds in Los Angeles County gusted up to 87 mph and up to 63 mph on the Santa Barbara County coast.
The highest rainfall totals in California over the last 24 hours were 5 inches in Potter Valley, 3.98 inches in Valley Christian, 4.67 inches in Los Angeles County and 1.8 inches in Beverly Hills.
San Francisco picked up more than half of its annual rainfall in just 30 days.
Winter storm warnings are in effect for the Sierras, where there could be up to 4 feet of snow.
Heavy snow will continue to fall in the Sierras and mountains of Los Angeles later Thursday while snow will also be moving into the central Rockies.
Additional Atmospheric Rivers will move in this weekend and into next weekend. More rounds of flooding rain, winds and mountain snow are to be expected. The northern and central part of the state will likely get the brunt of it.
Elsewhere, there were 23 reported tornadoes across the South.
Seven tornadoes were confirmed in Illinois alone, making it the biggest tornado outbreak for the state since 1989.
To the north, up to 15 inches of snow fell in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, breaking a daily record and making it the snowiest start to January in five years.
With more than 45 inches of snow so far this season, this is the snowiest start to winter in almost 30 years at Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport.
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