Extreme winds knock out power in Sacramento as California faces another onslaught of storms

LOS ANGELES - Heavy winds pummelled the Sacramento, California, region, toppling trees and knocking out power for more than 300,000 customers until Sunday, as the US state braced for yet another series of storms this week that could bring additional flooding, more outages and tree damage, as well as dangerous mudslides and mountain snow.

Wind speeds topped out at more than 110kmh on Saturday night and early Sunday in the Sacramento area. At least one person was killed.

By Sunday afternoon, about 68,000 customers remained without power. A spokesperson with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District said the company had dozens of crews on the ground working but that extensive damage from the storm meant that some customers would be without power through the night.

Mr Parker Wilbourn, fire captain with the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, said they were responding with an “all hands on deck” approach. Saturday night’s storm was particularly devastating, he said, coming on the heels of the rain, outages and flooding the city has already suffered.

The storm followed a week of downpours across California that caused widespread flooding and felled countless trees. Six people were killed.

The state is being hit by a family of atmospheric rivers – huge plumes of water vapour in the sky – in rapid succession.

On Monday morning, what some forecasters in the Los Angeles weather office are calling the “main show” begins. A potent atmospheric river will begin in the northern part of the state Monday before moving south through the day and into Tuesday.

According to the Weather Prediction Centre, many areas could see an amount of precipitation that occurs only once every five or 10 years.

Rain totals could reach 2 to 4 inches over most areas and could be more than 8 inches along the coast and coastal ranges and along the western slope of the Sierra.

This storm system should begin to wane Tuesday. On Wednesday, another system will begin, although it is expected to be weaker than the previous one. Any precipitation, however, will fall on a region susceptible to additional rainfall and could exacerbate swollen rivers and creeks.

There may be a brief break before another atmospheric river forecast for the weekend, which would bring more heavy rainfall and threats of flooding.

Forecasters in the San Francisco Bay Area office of the National Weather Service said that there is a 60 per cent to 80 per cent chance that the wetter-than-normal pattern will continue for the next couple of weeks. NYTIMES