On Saturday night (February 14), a storm system swept through the southeastern United States, issuing tornado warnings in Mississippi and Louisiana, striking parts of Georgia and Florida. At the same time, people in the Northeast who had endured weeks of severe cold finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Over the weekend, near Lake Charles, Louisiana, one of the most severe storms in the southern United States hit the region. Thunderstorm-induced strong winds overturned a horse trailer and a float used in a parade, damaged an airport boarding bridge, and threw a metal awning of a house onto power lines. National Weather Service personnel conducting surveys in the area documented these damage reports.
The National Weather Service reported that utility poles snapped and fell in strong winds near the towns of Jena, Cheneyville, and Donaldsonville in Louisiana.
As of now, there have been no reports of deaths or serious injuries. However, as the storm system continues to move towards the southern part of Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, the National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for these areas on Sunday.
This weekend’s storm caused power outages in parts of the southern United States, but it was not as widespread as the massive power outages caused by the ice storm in northern Mississippi and the Nashville area of Tennessee at the end of last month. According to data from “PowerOutage.US,” monitoring power outages nationwide, on Sunday afternoon, over 12,000 households were without power in northern Florida, about 7,000 in Mississippi, and 6,000 in Louisiana.
Meanwhile, the Northeast, which had been experiencing unusually cold weather for weeks, is starting to warm up.
On the West Coast of the United States, most parts of California are on high alert as a strong winter storm is expected to bring heavy rain, destructive winds, and mountain snow. Meteorologist Jacob Spender from the National Weather Service Sacramento office said a storm system will enter California on Sunday and last for a week.
Spender said high-altitude areas are expected to see heavy snow. “As we go into the mountain ranges and foothills, we will see some snowfall. So, the snowfall will also extend all the way to the foothills.”
Spender reminded people to pay attention to travel warnings in the coming days, be prepared, and emphasized that this will be a larger-scale and more impactful storm system.