Forecasters are warning of possible winter storms across the United States during Thanksgiving week

WINDSOR, Calif. — 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 flooding on Saturday, authorities braced for more rainfall as they battled flash floods and small landslides from a previous storm. Thousands in the Pacific Northwest remained without power after several days of darkness.

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 strong winds, 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.

Earlier this week, two people died when 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 ”, which hit the West Coast on Tuesday brought violent winds which resulted in damage to house and vehicle.

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.

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 80,000 people in the Seattle area were still without power after this season’s strongest atmospheric rivera long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows over land.

Power came back on in the afternoon at Katie Skipper’s home in North Bend, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Seattle, after being out since Tuesday. She was tired of taking cold showers, warming herself with a wood stove and using a generator to power the refrigerator, but Skipper said those inconveniences paled in comparison to the injuries other people suffered, such as from fallen trees.

“It’s really sad and scary,” she said.

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 precipitation was expected to help ease drought conditions after an unusually dry autumn.

“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. Less than 80,000 customers in 10 counties lost power.

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.

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