By SPA
Washington : A strong Arctic storm hit California on Friday, downing trees, dropping rain on coastal areas charred by recent wildfires, and threatening to paralyze high-elevation areas with deep snow.
The northern half of the state was being hit with strong rain, 137-kilometer-per-hour (kph) wind, and heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. In southern California, the storm was gathering strength off the coast and was expected to hit the region by mid-afternoon.
Homeowners rushed to pile sandbags around houses lying below fire-damaged hillsides in southern California, while northern California residents hurried to stock last-minute provisions.
The storm system began dropping rain and snow Thursday in parts of northern California. By Friday morning the storm had left about 600,000 northern and central Californians without electricity, utility companies said. Most of the outages were around the Sacramento area.
The U.S. Forest Service issued an avalanche warning for Mount Shasta, in the Cascade mountain range in far northern California, while the NWS issued a rare blizzard advisory for the Sierra Nevada mountains.
The blizzard warning for the mountains and the Lake Tahoe region remained in effect until Saturday morning. Forecasters said over a meter of snow was expected, along with winds gusting to 240 kph.