Created February 25, 2023 | 11:43
Reading time: 2 minutes
More than 100,000 customers without electricity
Photo: APA/dpa
Mmillions of people in the state of California are looking outside and seeing snow or rain instead of a blue sky. A violent winter storm threatens the state’s sunny west coast with blizzards, flooding, avalanches and freezing temperatures this weekend. More than 100,000 customers in California lost power Saturday night, according to the website “poweroutage.us”.
The National Weather Service temporarily issued a flood warning for Los Angeles and other cities. Downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Santa Barbara are among those affected. Broadcaster CNN reported on Friday and overnight that streets in and around Los Angeles were flooded. For the first time in decades, parts of the US state also received a blizzard warning. That’s what the violent snowstorms with strong drops in temperature in North America are called.
Snow-capped mountains could already be seen in photos of California on Friday. Forecasters had expected more snow at higher altitudes and thunderstorms at lower elevations for Saturday. In isolated cases, up to eight feet of snow could fall, CNN reported, citing the weather service. Snow fell even in unusual places: Snow or sleet was reported to have been spotted near the famous “Hollywood” sign on Friday, the weather service said on Twitter.
A violent winter storm caused chaos not just in California. In the US state of Michigan, about 465,000 customers were still without electricity on Saturday night, as reported by “poweroutage.us”. Previously, the number of affected households was even higher there.