By Chantal Da Silva -
NBC News
Two people have died in a submerged car in California, parts of the Pacific Northwest face the rare possibility of seeing snow on Christmas Day, and fierce winds are forecast in New Mexico as winter storms sweep across the western United States: United States Unidos gets ready for a party with extreme weather.
Residents of some areas of Seattle and Portland should prepare for a White Christmas, according to the National Weather Service.
Meanwhile,
high winds could knock down power lines in New Mexico
and rain could make Phoenix-area highways slippery and treacherous.
However, the forecast is different for some areas in the center and south of the country, where forecasters say residents
"will have to settle for spring temperatures"
due to a non-seasonal heat wave.
Several vehicles try to travel on a highway affected by heavy snowfall in California on December 23, 2021.
The extreme weather hitting the West Coast is being driven by an atmospheric phenomenon born over the Pacific Ocean.
Residents from western Washington to southern California face
flash flood warnings
, with snow and rainfall from eve to Christmas night.
Floods in California were fatal Thursday when two people were killed when their vehicle was submerged in a flooded underpass in Millbrae, south of San Francisco.
Firefighters were able to rescue two people who got into a car but were unable to reach the one that was completely sunk, said Detective Javier Acosta of the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office.
[They estimate that winter storm will leave up to 10 feet of snow in parts of the US]
In parallel,
evacuation orders
were issued Thursday
in Orange County, California, due to possible landslides and debris flows in three canyons where a forest fire recently burned, authorities said.
This move came after the Orange County Fire Authority announced a landslide Thursday night that left no injuries.
In the Sierra Nevada mountains area, about 150 homes received an evacuation notice after cracks were found in the granite of the Twain Harte Lake Dam.
Sgt. Nicco Sandelin of the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office said there did not appear to be any immediate danger.
A tree blocks several lanes of a freeway near Redwood Road in Oakland, California.Aric Crabb / MediaNews Group via Getty Images
The evacuation warning coincides when
this mountain range expects between 5 and 8 feet of snow during the holidays
, with maximums of 10 feet at the highest points.
according to the National Weather Service.
Authorities advised not to travel in this area as snowfall will create dangerous driving conditions.
"Traveling the most affected places with very high accumulations of snow and conditions of white snow
will be dangerous, even impassable at times
," he said in a statement.
While the west of the country faces the problems of a winter climate, the center and the south will experience record warm temperatures.
[A strong storm system causes chaos and flooding in areas of Los Angeles]
"In contrast to the west, those who dream of a white Christmas in much of the south and east-central United States have to settle for spring temperatures this Christmas," the weather service acknowledged.
Jay Parker, 40, sees flash flood damage to his backyard in Silverado Canyon, California.Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag
Their forecasts call for the daytime highs on Christmas Eve, from the middle Mississippi Valley to west Texas, to reach 70 and 80 degrees, "with some locations not only breaking daily records, but potentially challenging the records for December" overall.
Thermal anomalies on Christmas Eve are expected to bring with them "record daily minimum temperatures" from the Ohio Valley to the Great Plains.
In other words, "temperatures so mild that
Santa Claus will want to wear a lighter red coat when he goes from house to house,
" joked the National Weather Service.
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By Christmas Day, "the spring air mass" is expected to provide warmer temperatures to the Mid-South and Mid-Atlantic with highs of between 60 and 70 years, bringing more heat records "especially from the valleys of Tennessee and Ohio to the depths of the heart of Texas. "
