A Pacific storm uncoiling itself over California with heavy rain and snow is forecast to deliver a severe risk for tornadoes, high winds and thunderstorms across parts of Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas by the middle of next week.
Upwards of 2 inches of rain could drop suddenly in the valleys of Southern California Saturday into Sunday with up to 6 inches in coastal foothills and mountains, touching off floods and landslides, the U.S. National Weather Service said. Then snow could fall by the foot in the Sierra Nevada range, as well as in parts of Oregon and Washington.
The tornado threat comes almost a year after a series of tornado outbreaks in the Midwest killed at least 75 people and destroyed an Amazon delivery station in Illinois. Since 1980, there have been a total of 182 severe storms and major winter storms that have caused at least $1 billion in damage and killed at least 3,296 people, according to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information.
