Weather karaoke: Can tornadoes hit large cities?
In Beyoncé’s debut country album, she sings about a tornado in her city-but do tornadoes even hit cities?
After a tornado warning Saturday morning, the Bay Area still faced the threat of flooding, while other parts of the U.S. braced for ice, rain and snow.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning Saturday morning for downtown San Francisco and San Mateo County just before 9 a.m. ET/6 a.m. PT. It was lifted soon after. But severe weather remained a threat in the region with an atmospheric river event expected to bring gusty winds and very heavy rain, with the potential for flooding, to northern and central California throughout Saturday, the weather service said.
San Francisco has also been hit with power outages, due to storm impacts, according to the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, which posted an update on social network X, formerly Twitter, just before 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT.
The weather event is also expected to bring heavy mountain snow to the Coastal Ranges and the Sierra Nevada, where winter storm warnings were issued by the National Weather Service.
Wind gusts of 40-60 mph are likely along the California coast and in the mountains of Northern and Central California – as well as western Washington and British Columbia, thanks to an additional storm, according to AccuWeather.
Rainfall of 2-4 inches is expected in San Francisco to Redding and just east of Sacramento. “Rain will pour down in low elevations in Northern California and the southwestern part of Oregon as well from Friday through Saturday,” said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Adam Douty in a forecast.
In the low elevations of Central California, rain of 1-2 inches could bring “a risk of mudslides, other debris flows and slides and road washouts,” according to AccuWeather. “Motorists should be prepared for flooded roads in locations that typically drain poorly.”The storm is unlikely to bring rain to Southern California, where firefighters continue to fight Malibu’s Franklin Fire.
Winter weather advisories across the western US
That same weather system is expected to bring rain and snow to parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Montana. Lower elevations will get rain and a limited amount of snow. Heavier snow is forecast in the mountains including in central Idaho and western Wyoming, where winter snow warnings are in effect for snowfall of 5-10 inches, with 12 inches or more possible locally, the National Weather Service said.
A winter weather advisory is in effect into Sunday morning in Idaho where snow of up to six inches is forecast above 4,500 feet in the Camas Prairie, Boise Mountains, and West Central Mountains.
Another winter weather advisory in effect through Sunday afternoon covers Utah’s Wasatch Mountains and western Uinta Mountains, with up to 15 inches of snow possible in the Ogden area mountains and Bear River Range.
Winter weather advisories are also in effect into late Sunday afternoon and Sunday night for parts of Montana, with 4-8 inches of snow are forecast for areas near the Idaho border and in the Henrys Lake and Centennial ranges. Another advisory – for central and eastern Montana, including Carter, Custer, Fallon, and northern Rosebud counties – forecasts a wintry mix of 1-2 inches of freezing rain, transitioning to snow.
The chance of precipitation – including a wintry mix – spreads east into the northern High Plains by Saturday night, the National Weather Service said.
Snow and freezing rain in, and east of, Midwest
The threat of a wintry mix with accumulating freezing rain also led to many winter weather advisories from the upper Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic through the weekend.
With the likelihood of a “potentially impactful wintry mix with freezing rain” expected, The National Weather Service issued an ice storm warning Saturday for parts of Iowa, east and north of Des Moines. The entire state was under a winter weather advisory into Saturday afternoon, along with parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois.
In the areas under the ice storm warning, travel could be “nearly impossible” and the storm is expected to bring power outages and tree damage, the NWS said.
Freezing rain left a glaze over the roads in Omaha, with a local resident posting a short video on X how the street had become a hockey rink.
This “wave of wintry precipitation” will move into the Great Lakes region late Saturday, eventually reaching places like Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Traverse City, Michigan, according to AccuWeather.
A winter weather advisory is also in effect through noon Sunday for a stretch of the Mid-Atlantic, including northwest North Carolina, southwest Virginia, and southeast West Virginia, along and west of Interstate 77. Freezing rain, expected from midnight to early Sunday, with snow and sleet in the mix, could lead to ice accumulations.
A forecast of snow, sleet and ice has led the NWS to issue winter weather advisories through early Monday morning for western and north-central Maryland, panhandle and eastern West Virginia, and northwest and western Virginia.
It’s not rain, ice, and snow everywhere across the U.S. Most of the country will have high temperatures at or above average this weekend, with some of the warmest spots in Texas and the southern Plains where highs could get into the low 80s and the desert Southwest and Florida, which will experience temperatures in the 70s, the weather service said.
Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.
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