Parts of California remain under blizzard warnings, a rarity for the Golden State.
In the next 24 to 36 hours, the area faces historic amounts of snow, rain and winds.
“Right now, California’s getting basically drenched with a firehose of moisture,” said Kyle David, associate producer and weather forecaster at Fox Weather. “This is a very rare storm for California.”
The Santa Barbara County mountains, which are under their first-ever blizzard warning, and the Los Angeles County mountains, whose last blizzard warning came in 1989, can face a few feet of snow.
“Basically anywhere above 4,500 feet in the mountains, you’re looking at a couple feet of snow,” David explained.
“Anywhere higher, you could get some isolated amounts that are even higher than that. But the general consensus is a couple of feet of snow for the upper elevations of the California mountains and Sierra Nevada.”
The snow will add to the already larger-than-usual snowpack there. The majority of the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which supplies about a third of California’s water, was amassed in December and January when atmospheric rivers hit the area.
Other parts of the state, where over 121,000 residents are currently without power, are being saturated by heavy amounts of rainfall.
Downtown Los Angeles is expected to get up to 5 inches of rain. The National Weather Service even issued a flash flood warning for the city, the second highest level of flood warning, only trumped by a flood emergency.
On Friday afternoon, the rain and flooding in forced the closure of numerous thoroughfares in LA.
Interstate 5, the West Coast’s major north-south highway, was closed on Thursday through Friday night because of heavy snow in the Sacramento River Canyon.
Besides the moisture, residents may experience up to 75 mph wind gusts. The National Weather Service said wind gusts of up to 100 mph are also possible in isolated areas.
The West Coast isn’t the only part of the US experiencing wild winter weather.
In Michigan, over 460,000 are without power after freezing temperatures following one of the worst ice storms the area has seen in decades.
The western part of the state saw rain, sleet and snow, which causes downed power lines.
Late Saturday morning, snowbirds in New York City did experience some excitement at the sight of snow, even if mild.
“If there were any accumulations, in my opinion, it wouldn’t be terribly a lot,” David said.
“You’re maybe looking at a coating on the ground. And that could change, depending on how much warm air sneaks in with the system, but it’s a possibility.”