US braces for snow and heavy rain as major storm predicted for weekend
Forecasters warn that a storm system could prompt intense rainfall and possible tornadoes next week in the southern US, as cities across the country are bracing for intense weather leading into the weekend.
The powerful storm system is expected to bring heavy rainfall and high winds to the Gulf coast and south-eastern regions as early as Monday and continue into Tuesday, the Weather Channel reported.
Parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are also at risk of flooding from severe thunderstorms, with up to 5in of rain expected in some areas.
The latest extreme weather comes as a major storm is predicted to bring heavy snow to northern states and intense rainfall along the Gulf coast.
Forecasters have warned that the storm could deliver heavy snowfall to north-eastern and New England states, where some cities have not had substantial snow in recent times.
Rhode Island and Connecticut could see 6-12in of snow, the
National Weather Service Boston reported.
A winter storm watch was also in effect in parts of New Hampshire, where the incoming storm could bring 6in of snow, the Boston Globe reported, and more than 25 million Americans are under storm watches from the Carolinas up the east coast to Maine.
Major east coast cities will probably face more rain than flurries. New York City is expected to receive less than an inch of snow, after a snowless winter last year.
It had been 690 days since the Big Apple picked up an inch or more of snow, local Fox 5 reported – a record stretch. The climate crisis is bringing milder, wetter winters to many parts amid global heating.
New York state’s Hudson valley area could get 2-4in of snow this weekend, CNN reported.
Washington DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia could see a dusting, while most substantial snowfall will be inland up the eastern seaboard.
Georgia, Mississippi and other
states along the Gulf coast were expected to receive heavy rainfall and thunderstorms starting on Friday and into the weekend, AccuWeather reported.
Intense weather conditions triggered a tornado warning for parts of south-eastern Texas on Friday morning, but ended at 6.15am central time, the National Weather Service reported.
The cross-country storm had already affected swaths of the country, including New Mexico and parts of Texas, ABC News reported.
On Thursday, the mountain area of close to Santa Fe, New Mexico, received 10in of snow as the storm continued traveling northward.
Residents of Amarillo, Texas, the largest city in Texas’s panhandle region, received 1-3in. Northern parts of the Texas panhandle faced upwards of 5in of snow.
Meanwhile, communities on the US west coast are bracing for another round of surging surf this weekend, with large waves up to 26ft high expected to slam into northern California and southern Oregon, with waves of up to 10ft in areas farther south, including San Francisco and San Diego.
Huge waves have besieged beaches along the coast through the start of the year, delighting surfers while also creating hazardous conditions that washed away cars, prompted water rescues and poured over jetties and rocks. The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that the next set of big waves could cause beach erosion and infrastructure damage along with injuries.
In northern California, a cold surge pulled from the Gulf of Alaska will bring widespread rain to the valleys and snow in the mountains, the NWS said in a forecast on Thursday. Peaks along the Cascades and in portions of the northern Rockies are expected to be doused in snow before the storm moves southward along the west coast and over the Sierra Nevada. The mountain range, which has seen severely low levels of snow so far this season, could get up to 2ft of accumulation at elevations above 5,000ft.
The incoming storm could dump up to 20in of snow in the Lake Tahoe area at elevations above 7,000ft, while howling winds higher in the mountains could reach up to 100mph. Strong gusts of up to 50mph are still likely at lower elevations and waves in Lake Tahoe are expected to surge up to 4ft high. Officials warned that travel through the area could be “difficult to impossible due to whiteout conditions”, and the violent winds could pull down trees and power lines. Power outages are also possible in the region.
Despite its potential for damage, the storm is a welcome sight for water managers in California, where snow is essential to the water supply. The state has seen a warmer winter so far than last year, when a series of severe storms covered mountain towns in snow and left California reservoirs brimming.
In sharp contrast, the state is bracing for the potential of a “snow drought” this year, and weather watchers are hopeful that more cold snowstorms blow through before the spring. The statewide snowpack totals stood at just 25% of average, measured during the January survey published on Tuesday before this set of storms.