Heavy snow fell in southern California on Friday, the aftermath of a rare snowstorm around Los Angeles, and heavy rains threatened other areas with flooding.
• Also read: Blizzard alert and difficult weather conditions: The USA is paralyzed
The region, known for its sunshine and palm trees, is experiencing one of the worst winter storms in decades.
Some major highways were closed due to frost and snow, such as B. Sections of the highway connecting Mexico, the United States and Canada with no immediate prospect of reopening.
Snowfall could have “dangerous and life-threatening” consequences on roads in Southern California, the US National Weather Service (NWS) warns.
In the mountains, where the wind could blow violently, the snowflakes should be legion.
Snow and wind have already downed power lines and left 118,000 homes in California without power, according to Poweroutage.
Even valleys “not used to receiving snow” could be covered in a white blanket, according to the NWS.
To illustrate the unusual nature of this blizzard, local weather presenters, who normally announce day-to-day sunshine, faced cameras knee-deep in snow on Friday.
On social media, everyone went there with their photo of a garden covered in snowflakes… a vision so rare that the Weather Service shared a tutorial.
“Wondering what is this frozen precipitation falling from the sky near you (if you are in the mountains)?” the Los Angeles NWS tweeted, attaching a graphic to their message to distinguish snow pellets from hail.
The first, soft and wet, is made of flakes while the second, harder, is made of ice, the agency explained.
Unless everyone ends up under the snow, Californians living at low elevations could experience downpours that pose a risk of flooding and mudslides.
A flood watch was in place for parts of Los Angeles County and nearby Ventura and Santa Barbara counties on the Pacific coast.
The state was hit by a series of deadly storms from late December through mid-January.
This very wintry weather isn’t unique to California: Still in the American West, but farther north, Wyoming had roads closed and Oregon had record snowfalls.
According to the local weather service, the city of Portland experienced the second snowiest day in its history with more than 27 cm of precipitation.
What to bring the chaos in the air. More than 340 domestic flights to or from the United States were canceled as of Friday afternoon and more than 4,000 were delayed.