© Reuters. The Los Angeles River during a rare cold winter storm in the Los Angeles area, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., February 24, 2023. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci
By Sharon Bernstein
(Reuters) – Nearly 85,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Los Angeles area on Saturday as storms continued to batter parts of California, bringing snow to higher elevations and dumping rain and hail on the plains.
Interstate 5, the largest highway leading north out of the city, remained closed on the steep grade known as Grapevine due to heavy snowfall, while several points further south on the freeway in and around Los Angeles were closed. due to flooding, the California Department reported. of Transportation said.
In Northern California, San Francisco was expected to experience record cold temperatures on Saturday, and the National Weather Service warned residents of the state capital, Sacramento, to avoid travel Sunday through Wednesday as rain and The snow started up again after a respite on Saturday.
“Extreme impacts from heavy snow and wind will cause extremely dangerous or impossible driving conditions and likely widespread road closures and infrastructure impacts!” the agency said on Twitter.
The next set of storms, expected to hit Sunday, will bring wind gusts of up to 50 mph (80 kph) in the Sacramento Valley and up to 70 mph in the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains. Yosemite National Park was closed through Wednesday due to severe winter conditions.
A massive low pressure system boosted from the Arctic was responsible for the unusual conditions, said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
In southern California, “this is a rare case of a significant cold storm,” Jackson said.
In a sight that must have delighted many Angelenos Friday, snowflakes even fell around the Hollywood sign atop Mount Lee in the foothills above the city, known for its sunny days and palm trees.
Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms were expected Saturday to bring rain, hail and a mix of snow and moisture called “graupel” to the area, the National Weather Service said.
A separate storm that battered the US Plains, Midwest and Great Lakes regions earlier this week headed into the Atlantic on Friday after passing over New England, the weather service said. More than 400,000 customers of Detroit-based DTE Energy (NYSE:) remained without power Saturday, the Detroit News reported.
Even before the latest storm, much of California had experienced an unusually wet and cold winter, beginning with a series of deadly “atmospheric river” storms that unleashed widespread flooding, felled trees and triggered mudslides in a state plagued by droughts and forest fires.