Some of the most severe weather from a weekend storm system moved through the Southeast with tornado warnings in parts of Mississippi and Louisiana before the system targeted areas of Georgia and Florida, where tornado watches were in effect on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.
In Louisiana, some of the fiercest impacts were reported near Lake Charles. High winds from a thunderstorm overturned a horse trailer and a Mardi Gras float, damaged an airport jet bridge, and flung the metal awning from a house into power lines, AP reported, citing that the damage was documented by National Weather Service employees who surveyed the area.
The AP also reported that power poles were snapped and toppled near Louisiana towns of Jena, Cheneyville and Donaldsonville. While no deaths or serious injuries were reported in the AP account, the storm’s continuation into south Georgia and the Florida Panhandle maintained the need for tornado watch precautions.
As the system moved through southern states, it brought outages as well. AP said PowerOutage.us, a site that tracks outages nationwide, reported that by Sunday evening a few thousand customers were still without electricity in Florida, Louisiana, Kentucky and Virginia, adding that the impact was smaller than the massive outages reported during ice storms late last month in northern Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee.
Farther north and east, the storm cycle coincided with a different kind of relief. AP reported that the Northeast was beginning to thaw after a weekslong stretch of uncommonly cold weather, and it said Boston was running nearly 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 Celsius) below average for February last week. By Sunday, Boston remained cold, but the forecast for this week called for temperatures climbing into the high 30s and low 40s, closer to the seasonal average, AP reported.
On the West Coast, preparations focused on a separate winter-weather threat. AP reported that much of California braced for a powerful winter storm expected to bring drenching thunderstorms, damaging winds and heavy snow in mountain areas, and it quoted Jacob Spender, a weather service meteorologist in Sacramento, urging people to pack winter safety kits and prepare because the system was “a bigger system, and a major system.”
In the San Francisco Bay Area, AP reported that rain that began Sunday was forecast to intensify through the day and overnight, bringing a risk of flooding. Forecasters said the Sierra Nevada, including ski resorts around Lake Tahoe, could see up to seven feet (two meters) of snow before the storm moved through late Wednesday, AP reported.
In Southern California, the focus shifted to flood-related hazards in areas burned by last year’s wildfires. AP said Los Angeles residents in some neighborhoods scarred by last year’s devastating wildfires were under an evacuation warning through Tuesday because of the potential for mud and debris flows, and it quoted Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as saying she ordered emergency crews and city departments to prepare to respond to any problems.