Spring brings more snow to California as 12th atmospheric river hurtles toward state

The second day of spring brought more harsh wintry weather to storm-weary California on Tuesday with torrential rain and heavy winds that left thousands without power.

At least one person was killed on Tuesday when a tree fell on a vehicle in San Mateo county in the San Francisco Bay area, the California highway patrol told media. In Santa Cruz county, one person was injured by a falling tree, according to the National Weather Service.

Forecasters warned the storm, the 12th atmospheric river on the US west coast since December, would hit southern and central California the hardest. A vast stretch of the region, including most of the greater Los Angeles area, was under flood watches due to the extreme weather, which was expected to spread across the south-west and into the central Great Basin and Rockies by late Tuesday.

The National Weather Service warned conditions would lead to difficult driving conditions, power outages and downed trees. Flooding prompted officials in southern California to close portions of the Pacific Coast highway Tuesday morning.

The NWS issued an excessive-rainfall notice for much of the southern California coast while high-wind warnings and advisories were in effect from the Mexico border through Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay area. The high mountains, still blanketed in white from a storm heavy winter, could see as much as 5ft of snow.

By midday Tuesday, Santa Cruz county was hit with wind gusts of nearly 90 mph that knocked down trees and power lines. The National Weather Service had issued a thunderstorm warning in parts of the county, calling the situation “life threatening” and advising residents to seek shelter immediately.

With downed trees and power lines closing roads across the region, officials warned residents to avoid travel if at all possible. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist, described the weather as a “sudden violent wind storm” that reportedly snapped trees in half.

The storm, Swain said, is remarkable. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” he said, describing its activity on the radar.

Nearly 240,000 customers of Pacific Gas & Electric, one of the nation’s largest utilities, were without power by early afternoon, mostly in the region south of San Francisco, according to PowerOutage.us.

The latest storm comes as California continues to grapple with the effects of an extreme winter, including widespread flooding and mountain towns buried in snow. The atmospheric river storms that have hit the state in recent months have dumped 30tn gallons of water across California, forcing entire towns to evacuate and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.

In Tulare county, including the historic black town of Allensworth, thousands of people are still under evacuation orders due to flooding after a levee breach.

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