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Residents of California
are preparing themselves for a series of storms that may bring winds, mudslides
and snow up to 10 feet.
Forecasters are warning that the bad weather might last all
weekend.
At least two storms hit the West Coast, from Washington State
to Southern California.
The first storm hit on Thursday Northern
California and brought two inches of rain, bloomerg.com informs.
Thursday night in the Sacramento
area were registered power outages and damaged electrical lines.
Almost 2,000 customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Company north
and east of Sacramento
remained without power, according to spokeswoman Susan Simon mercurynews.com
said.
It also brought gusts of winds of 50 mph at Sacramento International Airport.
According to the U.S. National Weather Service, the second
storm will bring more rain on Friday.
The weather service's San
Francisco office wrote on its Web site: “Behind the
(first) front, a yet even stronger storm is developing. The strong winds currently
ongoing will remain and actually increase to high wind warning levels, or 25 to
45 mph with gusts to 60 mph.”
Until January 6 a high-surf advisory is in effect. Tides of
30 feet were expected and the U.S. Coast Guard cautioned boaters to remain in the
port.
In the Mount Shasta the U.S. Forest Service issued an
avalanche warning and in the Sierra Nevada a
blizzard advisory was issued by the weather service. Here the winds could reach
100 mph and snow could drop up to 8 feet.
According to the AccuWeather website: ``Snowfall amounts in
the Sierra from the upcoming storms could rank among the top snowstorm totals
of the past 50 years. The benchmark is a series of storms in mid-January 1952
that left more than 12 feet of snow in Tahoe City, California.''
According to Ken Reeves, a meteorologist with
AccuWeather.com, the areas that were affected by the fires, like Hollywood
Hills and Malibu,
might suffer mudslides.
He said: ``There's nothing to hold the topsoil down as the
rain comes down in high quantity.''
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