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#East #West #coasts #face #double #whammy #storms
The East and West coasts face a “double whammy” of powerful storms On Tuesday, as storm-battered California faces potentially “catastrophic” flooding as the northeast braces for a powerful northeast, forecasters said.
A coastal low is expected to rapidly strengthen into a major northeast that will significantly impact the northeast through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. Twenty-three million people in the North East and New England are on winter alert Tuesday morning.
The weather service warned early Tuesday that rates of more than 2 to 3 inches per hour and strong winds are expected to make travel “unsafe if not impossible.” He said the heavy, wet nature of the snow, combined with wind gusts of up to 55 mph, would also likely lead to power outages and tree damage.
Snowfall totals of 12 inches or more were forecast over swaths of New England and upstate New York, with localized totals of 24 to 30 inches possible, he said.
In Maine, all state offices were closed on Tuesday, with Governor Janet Mills urging people to stay off the roads. Parts of Maine and New Hampshire could receive up to a foot of snow, according to the National Weather Service.
While Maine had less than 40 reported power outages Tuesday morning, New Hampshire had more than 46,000 reported outages, with most concentrated in southwestern counties, according to PowerOutage.us. And Vermont had nearly 30,700 tracked outages affecting the eastern and southern portions of the state.
In Massachusetts, several counties had seen more than a foot of snow Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The state had more than 68,900 power outages as of Tuesday morning, with most concentrated in western counties, PowerOutage.us shows.
“As expected, heavy wet snow caused widespread power outages in western Massachusetts,” said the National Weather Service in Boston. tweeted early Tuesday. “As the rain turns to snow across more of southern New England, outages will become more common.”
Affected trips
Early Tuesday, travel was already affected by inclement weather, with a ground stop issued for Delta Air Lines at LaGuardia Airport until at least 6:30 a.m. ET due to snow and ice.
governor of new york Kathy Hochul warned at a press conference on Monday that the storm could be “deadly” as she urged residents not to be complacent.
“We’re no strangers to snow here, but we also want to make sure that doesn’t mean complacency sets in. It’s our biggest fear,” she said. “This is the one where we warn people that it could be deadly.”
The governor said the storm could also cause a “serious loss of power” as she urged residents to stay home on Tuesday.
As of Tuesday morning, more than 100,000 New York customers had lost power, according to PowerOutage.usthe majority being concentrated in the eastern counties.
The governor declared a state of emergency that went into effect Monday at 8 p.m. for a series of counties, his office said.
More than 1,070 flights within, to or from the United States were delayed Tuesday morning and more than 670 were canceled, according to FlightAware.
Personnel and supplies were also deployed Monday to several areas expected to be affected by the major storm.
Utilities company National Grid said in a statement that its storm preparedness team was “monitoring weather forecasts and preparing to ensure the reliability of the power distribution system” ahead of the northeast.
On Monday evening, the Northeast had brought heavy rain to Philadelphia as it moved up the East Coast. Five counties in New Jersey were under a weather-related state of emergency and up to a foot of snow was expected along Pennsylvania’s I-80 corridor, according to the weather service.
“Lives and property” at risk in California
In Californiathe weather service warned that excessive rainfall over parts of the central and southern areas of the state could cause “severe and widespread flash flooding” that could endanger “lives and property”.
The warning came as a front stretching from the northern Rockies to central California was expected to bring a wave of low pressure ashore over the Golden State on Tuesday, he said.
The storm is expected to bring heavy rain to parts of California, where 26 million people are under flood alert and high-altitude areas face heavy snowfall. Oregon and the Great Basin are also expected to experience heavy rainfall, he said.
The severe weather could create “locally catastrophic flooding impacts” for parts of California as it moves south across much of the California coast, the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada foothills, a said the weather service.
“Heavy rains, combined with snowmelt in terrain below 5,000 feet, are leading to more widespread flooding Tuesday through Wednesday, particularly at lower elevations and in areas with light snowpack,” it said. he declares.
“Heavy rain absorbed into the particularly deep snowpack of the Sierra Nevada, along with heavy snowfall, measuring in feet above approximately 7,500 feet, further exacerbate impacts and ongoing snow load issues” , did he declare.
The Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center issued a high risk of excessive precipitation over parts of central and southern California through Wednesday morning in anticipation of the storm’s impact.
“Areas that do not normally experience flash flooding will be inundated,” the weather service said, warning that “lives and property are at great risk Tuesday through Wednesday.”
A discussion of weather service forecasts covering the San Francisco Bay Area Monday night through Tuesday said, “Damaging high winds, power outages, additional flooding and road closures are all expected.”
“Avoid unnecessary travel and complete all preparations as soon as possible,” he said.
The threat of excessive rainfall is expected to diminish Wednesday to marginal risk over parts of Southern California and the Southwest through Thursday morning, the weather service said.
Water rescues and dike breaches
The new wave of severe weather comes after major flooding and high winds over the weekend.
More than 200 people in the lowlands north of Salinas have been rescued by first responders, including members of the California National Guard, authorities said at a news conference on Monday, with a video showing a member of the Guard help a driver get out of a car stuck in water.
Monterey County, a national agricultural center, was hit hard by the weekend storm, with about 2,000 residents of the town of Pajaro under evacuation orders after a 300-foot breach in an adjacent levee caused began opening early Saturday, officials said.
A second, smaller breach near the mouth of the river was reported Monday, said Monterey County spokeswoman Maia Carroll. Officials believe that this can be beneficial.
“The water flows to the ocean and mitigates flooding upstream,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Sacramento Weather Service confirmed Monday that a tornado touched down Saturday in the Tuttletown area, about 50 miles west of Yosemite National Park. Forecasters said it was an EF-1 vortex, meaning it had sustained winds of at least 79 mph. Severe thunderstorms and hail had accompanied the tornado, he added.