Severe winter storms continue to lash the US
As one winter storm is unwinding across eastern states of the US, a powerful Pacific storm is forecast to move into California this afternoon. This new storm is expected to bring strong winds, heavy rain and some heavy snow falls across parts of California, before moving on to Nevada and parts of Oregon.
The National Weather Service has issued snow advisories for these areas with as much as a foot of snow forecast to fall in some parts before the end of the weekend. Strong winds are also expected to batter the California coast with potentially damaging gusts of up to 70mph (around 110 km/h). Meanwhile the high winds are likely to result in blizzards and white out conditions over the mountains.
While some smaller storms have affected the region recently, the last significant storm to hit this area was in January. In contrast the northeast of the US has experienced what seems like a continuous barrage of storms this winter. We are currently in the midst of a La Niña episode. A signature of La Niña is to bring increased storminess and incursions of cold air to the northeast US.
