By
The Associated Press
Downpours and large hail fell in Southern California on Sunday after the National Weather Service predicted lightning and gusts of nearly 60 miles per hour in mountain areas.
The California storm was moving into the southern Sierra Nevada, where areas around Lake Tahoe received a foot of fresh snow and Mammoth Mountain recorded up to 18 inches by Sunday morning.
The day before, the ski resort was forced to close several lifts after recording a 91 mph wind gust.
A 35-year-old woman was rescued after being swept away by the swollen Los Angeles River, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
She was airlifted to a hospital with minor injuries and hypothermia, according to authorities.
A car drives through the snow on Clark Avenue after a storm in Ames, Iowa, on March 22, 2024.Nirmalendu Majumdar/USA Today Network
The National Weather Service (NWS) also warned of a significant winter storm over the central regions of the country through Monday.
“The winter storm will be a high-impact and extensive system that will produce heavy snowfall and gusty winds that will persist over areas of the Northern Plains and northern North Central region,” the agency said in an online publication.
[Blizzard in California mountains has thousands without power]
Heavy snow was expected to spread from central and eastern Montana to the northern Plains and upper North Central region throughout Sunday and Monday.
There was a more than 70% chance of
at least 8 inches of snow
falling from central South Dakota to northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, the NWS said.
Police forces in the Northeast of the country reported hundreds of traffic accidents due to overturned cars and icy roads, while Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston suffered rain showers and flooding.
Thousands of brave souls in New England spent Sunday shoveling snow after a strong blizzard dumped more than 2 feet of snow in some areas over the weekend, causing traffic accidents, downing power lines and trees and
leaving hundreds of people homeless. thousands of people without power
, some perhaps for days, in Vermont, New Hampshire and most of Maine.
The combination of hail, freezing rain and heavy, wet snow also caused hundreds of flight delays and cancellations at airports.