Powerful storm continues to slam California with rain, snow, wind

Written by ABC Audio. All rights reserved. on February 20, 2024

(NEW YORK) — A flood watch remains in effect Tuesday across California, from San Diego in the south to Redding in the north, as a powerful storm continues to unleash rain, snow and wind on much of the West Coast.

The south-central California counties of Santa Barabara and Ventura have seen the most rainfall so far, with 8 to 11 inches accumulating over the past three days. Areas further south in the Golden State have been somewhat spared but are expected to get heavy rain Tuesday morning, with local amounts of 1 to 3 inches possible from Los Angeles to San Diego.

The mountains in Los Angeles County already got up to 6 inches of rain, while downtown Los Angeles saw about 1 inch. The city of Los Angeles is just 2 inches of rainfall away from having its wettest February on record.

In addition to rain, strong winds of 50 to 60 miles per hour were reported in spots from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

In parts of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, gusts were over 100 mph and 2 feet of snow had fallen.

The winds are forecast to ease Tuesday but, with an atmospheric river affecting the area, thunderstorms could form and bring gusts to southern California.

Winter storm warnings and snow alerts are in effect Tuesday from Southern California to Utah and Colorado, where an additional 1 to 2 feet of snow is possible.

The storm is expected to continue feeding moisture from the Pacific Ocean into California through Wednesday before moving out of the region by the evening.