Strong winds downed dozens of trees and power poles and ripped off rooftops – and in one case, solar panels – across Southern California.
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Prior to Sunday’s storm, state and federal officials in Southern California asked those heading up to mountain areas for a day in the snow to pick up after themselves.
NWS Forecaster Tina Stall said Sunday’s storm was a typical winter storm pattern and not one caused by El Niño.
A woman was killed Sunday when a large tree uprooted and fell during a strong storm that lashed San Diego, crushing four cars, authorities said. Four cars were crushed by the fallen tree.
The severe rains and ferocious winds also led to Southern California plunging into darkness as over 150,000 people lost power supply thanks to the storm.
In Southern California Edison’s service area, some of the areas hardest hit by power outages Sunday included West Covina, where more than 3,800 customers experienced outages Sunday, along with South Whittier, where more than 3,100 customers were affected. Whitaker Peak encountered wind gusts as powerful as 115 mph, whereas Beverly Hills and Malibu Canyon faced wind gusts that clocked 61 mph and 65 mph, respectively.
Following “moderate” rainfall that triggered flash flood warnings in Los Angeles County’s recent burn areas through 6 p.m. Sunday, “The actual storm system will exit the area (Monday) night”, National Weather Service Meteorologist Todd Hall said Sunday. The threat subsided by late Sunday as the storm moved out of the area.
The winds knocked out power to about 38,000 San Diego Gas & Electric customers, local media reported.
Blinding rain briefly brought traffic to a near-standstill on LA freeways. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The weather service said the storm system is expected to pack fairly strong southwest winds ahead of the front with even stronger west to northwest winds behind the front Sunday afternoon into Monday. The rough seas prompted authorities to close the piers at Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach.
Interstate 80 was closed near Truckee for several hours after 29 vehicles were involved in a pile-up amid snowy conditions, KCRA-TV reported.
The weekend’s heavy rain has mostly moved out, but snow is still expected in areas as low as 2,000 feet.
Winds from the northwest at 15 to 25 miles per hour with gusts to 30 miles per hour are also expected to hit the region.
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