Seven feet of snow is falling in parts of California. residents trapped
First responders in California carried food and medicine to mountain communities where up to 7 feet of snow fell.
Scott L. Hall and Patrick Colson-Price, USA TODAY
Another winter storm will develop this week after a system wreaked havoc across much of the nation in recent days, leading to 13 deaths in the South and Northeast.
Snow will continue in California and other parts of the West as well as the Great Lakes regionon Mondayand in some areas the temperature will drop below freezing once again.
Fears of flooding in California also increased Monday as forecasters warned that a warm storm could hit parts of the state later in the week.
More than 200,000 homes and businesses remained in the dark across the country as of Monday from storms in recent days, according to the monitoring website Poweroutage.us. Kentucky had 118,000 outages, Michigan 26,000, Tennessee 19,000 and California 18,000. And the holiday continued – the Kentucky storm hit on Friday. Michigan has been battling outages since an ice storm hit two weeks ago.
Developments:
►Minneapolis could see several inches of accumulated snow Thursday and Friday. Residents woke up to slick roads Monday from a storm Sunday night.
►Snow was expected to persist in northern Michigan for most of the day Monday before rolling inland to the northeast later Monday on Tuesday morning.
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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said 125,000 homes and businesses remain without power Monday, three days after a wall of tornadoes, thunderstorms and strong winds swept through the state, killing five people. About 300 were left without water, he said.
Beshear said he was encouraged by his visit to Fremont a day earlier.
“What happened in Fremont was a miracle,” he said. “An EF2 tornado touched down, basically went down their main street a mile and a half, (and) no one was hurt in this town.”
He said the cleanup was in full force. Local officials and utility workers worked side by side with residents and volunteers.
“What I saw was the best of humanity,” he said. “Like everything else we've faced, we'll face it together.”
The mountains of California and parts of the Midwest have weathered a stormy winter, but much of the eastern United States has little snow. Boston, known for nasty Easter showers and last year's blizzard that dropped nearly 2 feet of snow on the city, saw just over 11 inches last week compared to an average of 38.6, according to National Weather Service data.
Philadelphia has only gotten 0.3 inches compared to an average of 19.2. New York, which usually gets over 2 feet of snow by now, has only seen 2.2 inches. Similar shortages have been seen in Providence, RI, Pittsburgh, Washington, DC and parts of West Virginia.
“For the most part, it's been a winter without a winter” in the region, says David Robinson, a Rutgers University geography professor and state climatologist.
Overall, it was the warmest winter (December-January) on record in the Northeast, according to data from the Northeast Regional Climate Center released Monday.
AccuWeather said was tracking a storm that is expected to spread snow along an 1,800-mile stretch that starts in the northern plains and could end up in the northeast in the coming days.
“Forecasters say the upcoming storm is not expected to be as large as its predecessor,” AccuWeather said. “But it could still produce enough wintry weather to cause travel problems.”
A winter weather advisory was in effect for parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey until Tuesday morning. Scranton, Pennsylvania, could see 5 inches of snow.
Parts of the Dakotas will be under a winter storm warning until Monday afternoon. The National Weather Service said the mid-Atlantic region will see rain and snow through Monday afternoon, and some areas may experience freezing rain.
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A winter storm warning remained in effect for parts of California until Tuesday. The Sierra Nevada mountain range could see an additional 3 feet of snow by midweek, the weather service said, as the region continues to see snowfall totals above historical averages. Travel in the area will be difficult to impossible, forecasters said. Wind gusts of up to 70 mph could drop the wind chill as low as 25 degrees below zero.
The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab in Soda Springs said Sunday that 30 inches of snow fell over the weekend and has had over 46 feet of snow this season.
Forecasters, meanwhile, said the next Pacific storm to arrive late in the week will be linked to a moderately strong current of moisture known as an atmospheric river.
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“An abundance of subtropical moisture will move inland over Central California along the southern periphery of this storm system Thursday night into Friday night,” the National Weather Service said.
Heavy precipitation and a mild air mass will cause rapid snowmelt in areas that have received several feet of snow recently, the agency said.
UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain tweeted that “the chances for a warm storm of some size around Friday/Saturday are increasing, especially in Northern California, but the size and duration are extremely uncertain. A moderate event is very possible, but a stronger storm cannot be ruled out.”
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Contributing: Lucas Aulbach, Louisville Courier Journal
Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.
