California weather forecast update: Tornado warning near LA as thousands left without power in the snow

As California is threatened by dangerous blizzard conditions, The Independent’s Megan Sheets explains what a snow squall is – and what to do if you become caught in one.

The iconic Hollywood sign in Los Angeles has had a light sprinkling of snow, ABC7 reported on Friday.

The local news station flew their helicopter over the hills above the city and reported that dense fog was hovering around the famous lettering and small chunks of snow along the trail below the sign.

While this week’s winter storms meant nearly 1 million homes and businesses from coast to coast lost power, Michigan was the hardest hit.

The storm coated branches, power lines and utility poles with ice as thick as three-quarters of an inch, putting more than 820,000 customers in the dark at one point in the state.

By Friday, that was down to under 700,000, most in the state’s populous southeastern corner, around Detroit. Promises of power restoration by Sunday, when low temperatures were expected to climb back above zero (minus 18 Celsius), were of little consolation.

“That’s really vague and that’s really long,” said Apurva Gokhale, of Walled Lake, Michigan. “That’s four days without power in such weather. It’s unthinkable.”

Her home lost power early Thursday. By that evening, the temperature inside had dropped to 55 degrees (12 Celsius). She, her husband and son stayed the night with relatives.

Tom Rankin, 70, said he and his wife were unable to reach his 100-year-old mother-in-law on Friday morning by phone. The couple drove to her home in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, to find her in bed “with a whole lot of blankets,” Rankin said.

She was fine, Rankin said, and the temperature in her home was about 65 degrees after she lost power on Thursday afternoon. But they helped her to their car, planning to ride out the outage at another relative’s home.

John Malkovich has reflected on his close friendship with Julian Sands, the British actor who went missing during adverse weather conditions on a hiking trip in California more than five weeks ago.

Malkovich stars alongside his “closest friend” Sands in Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes, which premiered at Berlin Film Festival this week.

Here’s how the three to seven day hazards outlook is shaping up from the National Weather Service (NWS).

More heavy rain is forecast across parts of California, the Central Appalachians, the Northeast, the
Pacific Northwest, and the Mid-Atlantic on Monday and Tuesday.

Heavy snow is expected in the Central Great Basin, the Northern Rockies, the Central Rockies along with in the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest by the end of the weekend through Tuesday.

High winds are forecast across the Rockies, the Plains and the Southwest on Sunday, moving east through Monday and Tuesday.

Much below normal temperatures across portions of California, the Central Great Basin, the Pacific Northwest, the Northern Great Basin, and the Southwest, are expected well into next week, NWS said.

In Alaska, heavy rain is expected through all of next week in the mainland and panhandle, and heavy snow is forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday along with much below normal temperatures.