A major storm lashed Northern California with rain and snow Wednesday night, threatening to cause flooding and landslides in the latest severe weather over the West Coast.
The National Weather Service extended a flash flood watch for areas north of San Francisco on Saturday atmospheric river — a large plume of moisture flowing ashore — has flooded the region that California and the Pacific Northwest have seen this season. Storm system the winds released the day before that left two dead and hundreds of thousands without power in Washington state.
Up to 16 inches of rain (about 41 centimeters) was forecast for northern California and southwestern Oregon through Friday. By Wednesday evening, some areas of Northern California were in for heavy rain, including Santa Rosa, which saw about 5 inches (about 13 centimeters) in a 24-hour period, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard.
Authorities warned that dangerous flooding, rockfalls and debris flows were possible. There have been a dozen small landslides in northern California in the past 24 hours, including one Wednesday morning that caused a vehicle accident on Highway 281, Chenard said.
The National Weather Service in the Bay Area warned people that the atmospheric river was centered in the North Bay and that “heavy rain is expected to continue tonight, Thursday into Friday.” This will cause mudslides, road closures.’
It’s considered a storm system that hit for the first time on Tuesday.”bomb cyclone”, which occurs when a cyclone rapidly intensifies.
A winter storm watch was in place for the northern Sierra Nevada above 3,500 feet (1,066 meters), where 15 inches (38 centimeters) of snow was possible over two days. Wind gusts could exceed 75 mph (121 km/h) in mountainous areas, forecasters said.
The storm had already dumped more than a foot of snow across the Cascades by Wednesday afternoon, the National Weather Service reported. Forecasters warned of food and gap conditions and near-impossible travel at pass level.
In Washington, nearly 376,000 power outages were reported as of Wednesday evening due to strong winds and rain the night before, reports said. poweroutage.us. Falling trees littered homes and roads in western Washington, killing at least two people. A woman in Lynnwood was killed when a large tree fell on a homeless encampment, while another woman in Bellevue was killed when a tree fell on a home.
More than a dozen schools in the Seattle area were closed on Wednesday and some chose to extend those closures into Thursday.
In California, nearly 21,000 people reported power outages by Wednesday afternoon.
Southbound Interstate 5 was closed for 11 miles (18 kilometers). AshOregon, California border Wednesday morning due to severe winter weather conditions in northern California, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation. The closure was expected to be long-term, the department said.
Hundreds of flights were delayed and dozens canceled at San Francisco International Airport, according to Flight Aware.
The weather service issued a flash flood watch for parts of southwestern Oregon through Friday afternoon, and high winds and seas temporarily shut down a ferry route between Port Townsend and Coupeville in northwest Washington.
