CNN
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A mild winter storm has hit the West Coast, flooding highways in Los Angeles and prompting rare blizzard warnings in Southern California.
In his first blizzard warningthe National Weather Service in San Diego said the mountains of San Bernardino County could see 3 to 5 feet of snow through Saturday morning.
Blizzard warnings were also issued for Los Angeles and Ventura counties through Saturday afternoon. Up to 5 feet of snow is possible with some isolated areas seeing between 7 and 8 feet. The National Weather Service office in Los Angeles issued the last blizzard warning on February 4, 1989.
Heavy rain fell on Friday afternoon in Los Angeles and flooding closed many roads in the area. The NWS has issued a flash flood warning for the city – the second highest level of flood warning from the NWS, second only to a flood emergency.
Up to 5 inches of rain could fall at lower elevations in the greater Los Angeles area while the mountains could see 6 inches. In the San Diego area, up to 3 inches of rain is possible at lower elevations while the mountains could get 7 inches.
More than 6 million people are covered by the flood warning, including downtown Los Angeles, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Burbank and Santa Barbara.
“This storm system will be exceptionally cold, and snow levels will be very low. In fact, areas very close to the Pacific Coast and also inland valleys that aren’t used to seeing snow, could see some accumulating snow,” the National Weather Service said earlier. on Friday.
“The worst impacts from flooding and blizzard conditions will occur Friday afternoon into Saturday morning, when any non-essential or non-emergency travel should be postponed!” THE San Diego weather service said.
The storm put more than 20 million people under flash flooding and more than 30 million people under high wind warnings across Southern California – nearly two months after the state suffered in deadly floods. Maximum gusts in the warning areas could reach 75 mph.
Up to 6 inches of snow is possible in low-lying areas and up to 3 feet could fall in the region’s highest peaks before conditions begin to improve Friday night as the storm slows to south
The Sierra Nevada Mountains could see up to 6 feet of snow Friday through Saturday and in Nevada, a hail warning for northwestern Nye County is in effect Friday morning into early Saturday .
“Heavy snow, winds gusting up to 60 mph, will cause zero visibility due to blowing and drifting snow,” the weather service warned.
Snow has already hit Santa Cruz Mountain, resident Ngugi Kihara told CNN on Friday.
“We’ve never seen this much snow here,” Kihara said. “We woke up to this. It started yesterday but caught a lot overnight. Many trees were down and all the roads around us were closed. Power has been out and has been mostly out since Tuesday. ”
Power outages increased in California on Friday, with nearly 99,000 customers in the dark, mostly in the northern region, according to poweroutage.us.
As the storm hit the West, a fierce, multi-day winter storm began to wind down after damaging several states across the West, the northern Great Plains, the Great Lakes region and New England.
More than 640,000 Michigan utility customers are without power in the state, according to poweroutage.us and DTE, one of Michigan’s largest electricity providers, said it could not get most of its customers back online at Sunday is not yet.
Twenty percent of DTE customers were without power as of Friday afternoon, DTE CEO Jerry Norcia said at a press conference. This is more than 480,000 customers according to poweroutage.us.
By the end of the day Friday, the company expects to restore power to 200,000 customers. By Sunday the utility hopes to restore nearly all customers to service, Norcia said.
Wayne County is currently the hardest hit area with more than 227,000 customers offline due to this week’s winter storm. Nearby Oakland County has another 112,000 without power.
The forecast low temperature in the Detroit area Friday night is 23 degrees, according to the NWS.
Several Wyoming counties went into search-and-rescue mode after more than 40 inches of snow fell in the southern part of the state over several days and motorists were stuck in the heavy snow, the state highway patrol said. said to Twitter.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, saw more than 13 inches in a three-day period this week. More than 160 car accidents were reported across the state, and many vehicles were spinning on the roads Wednesday, a spokesman for the Minnesota State Patrol said in a series of tweets.
Minneapolis officials have declared a one-day snow emergency starting Friday, and city crews are plowing and treating streets.
Since the storm began Monday night, total snowfall has reached twelve inches in some cities, including 48 inches in Battle Lake, Wyoming, 32 inches in Dupuyer, Montana, and 29 inches in Park City, Utah.
But snow is not the only cause of the storm. Heavy icing is also dangerous.
Ann Arbor, Michigan, recorded 0.65 inches, while Fransville, Wisconsin, measured 0.75 inches of snow.
And in New England, icy conditions likely contributed to a massive 15-vehicle pileup on the Massachusetts Turnpike Thursday night, according to a tweet by Massachusetts State Police.
The chain-reaction crash involved multiple personal vehicles and tractor trailers, officials said. Troopers, firefighters and EMS responded to the incident and several victims had to be taken to the hospital, according to the tweet.
While the northern regions of the country measured snowfall and ice accumulation, parts of the Southeast experienced high temperatures.
More than 50 daily record highs were recorded in the Southeast Thursday.
- The St. Simons Island, Georgia, saw a high temperature of 88 degrees, an all-time record for February.
- Tupelo, Mississippi, reached a high temperature of 87 degrees, another all-time record for February. The previous record of 84 degrees was set on Wednesday.
- Raleigh, North Carolina, saw a high temperature of 85 degrees, which is a record for February. The previous record of 84 degrees was set in 1977.
A dueling winter storm and southern heat wave created a 100-degree temperature difference between the Northern Rockies and the South earlier this week.