More storms forecast in US ahead of Thanksgiving after west coast drenched – National

Forecasters across the United States issued warnings that another round of wintry weather could complicate travel in the run up to the Thanksgiving holiday as California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages.

In California, where one person was found dead in a vehicle submerged in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more rainfall as they battled flooding and small landslides from an earlier storm.

The National Weather Service office in Sacramento, Calif., issued a winter storm warning for the state’s Sierra Nevada from Saturday into Tuesday, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 mph.

Total snowfall of about 4 feet (1.2 meters) was forecast, with the heaviest accumulations expected Monday and Tuesday.

The Midwest and Great Lakes regions will see rain and snow Monday, and the East Coast will be most affected on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, forecasters said.

A low pressure system is expected to bring rain to the southeast early Thursday before moving northeast. Areas from Boston to New York could see rain and windy conditions, with snowfall possible in parts of northern New Hampshire, northern Maine and the Adirondacks. If the system tracks further inland, there could be less snow and more rain in the mountains, forecasters said.

“The system doesn’t look like a powerhouse right now,” Hayden Frank, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Massachusetts, said Sunday. “Basically, this will bring rain to the I-95 corridor, so travelers should prepare for wet weather. Unless the system develops much colder, it looks like rain.”

Frank said he doesn’t see any major storm systems arriving for the weekend anywhere in the country, so travelers heading home Sunday can expect good driving conditions. However, temperatures will be colder in the east, while they will warm up in the west.

Earlier this week, two people died as the storm arrived in the Pacific Northwest. Hundreds of thousands lost power, mostly in the Seattle area, before strong winds moved through Northern California.

A rapidly intensifying “bomb cyclone” that hit the West Coast on Tuesday brought strong winds that resulted in damage to homes and vehicles. The system brought similar damage north of the border in British Columbia.

Rescuers in Guerneville, Calif., found a body inside a vehicle bobbing in floodwaters around 10 p.m. 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy Rob Dillion said, noting that the deceased was believed to be a victim of the storm, but an autopsy had not yet been performed. completed.

Trending now

• Ottawa apologizes, announces $45 million compensation for Nunavik Inuit dog slaughter

• Trudeau attends Taylor Swift concert in Toronto with family

Santa Rosa, Calif., saw its wettest three-day period on record with about 12.5 inches (32 centimeters) of rain Friday night, the National Weather Service in the Bay Area reported. Vineyards in nearby Windsor, California, were flooded on Saturday.

About 36,000 people in the Seattle area were still without power after this season’s strongest atmospheric river, a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows over land.

Another storm brought rain to New York and New Jersey, where rare wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. The rainfall was expected to help ease drought conditions after an unusually dry fall.

“It’s not going to be a drought-buster, but it will certainly help when all this melts,” said Bryan Greenblatt, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Binghamton, New York.

Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches (43 centimeters), with smaller accumulations in valley cities including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. About 35,000 customers in 10 counties are still without power, down from 80,000 a day ago.

In the Catskills region of New York, nearly 10,000 people remained without power Sunday morning, two days after a storm dumped heavy snow on parts of the region.

Rainfall in West Virginia helped put a dent in the state’s worst drought in at least two decades and bolstered ski resorts preparing to open their slopes in the coming weeks.

Associated Press writer Claire Rush in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report.

© 2024 The Canadian Press