The National Weather Service says continued heavy rainfall could create life-threatening flooding in northern California and areas of the Pacific Northwest through the weekend. Image by the National Weather Service
Nov. 21 (UPI) — Areas of northern California and the Pacific Northwest were drenched with intense rainfall and placed under warnings of life-threatening flooding as an “atmospheric river” pounded the region on Thursday.
The area is getting more rain and snow while recovering from a deadly “bomb cyclone” that passed through the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday night.
The strong atmospheric river will continue to bring heavy rain and dangerous flooding to northern California through Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
Puget Sound Energy crews are restoring power to more than 282,000 customers in western Washington State on Thursday after more than 400,000 customers lost power during the bomb cyclone that came through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.
Most PSE customers should have their power restored by noon Saturday, utility officials said.
The storm killed at least two and produced hurricane-force winds with speeds of up to 77 mph that knocked down trees and power lines before dying down on Wednesday morning.
The storm system affected the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia and combined with the atmospheric river that is slowly passing through northern California.
A woman died when a tree fell onto her home in Bellevue, Wash., and another woman died when a tree fell onto her homeless encampment in Lynnwood, which is located north of Seattle.
The Pacific Northwest also will see a new storm system develop that will cause gusty winds on Friday and heavy snowfall in the mountains that will spread toward the northern Rockies through the weekend.
The atmospheric river over northern California will bring between 6 and 12 inches of rainfall to the area while the storm system remains relatively stationary through the weekend after peaking in intensity on Thursday.
The NWS says a developing storm system off the coast of Oregon and Washington state will bring gusty winds, rough surf and power outages along the states’ coastlines on Friday.
The weather in northern California prompted local officials to require tire chains on vehicles except those with four-wheel-drive and snow tires while traveling along Interstate 80 from Kingvale to Truckee and from the Donner Lake interchange in Nevada County to four miles west of Nyack in Placer County.
Vehicles on Highway 50 were not required to use tire chains as of Thursday morning, but that might change.